When watching professional sports there are a variety of feelings that one can see clearly when watching your favourite team throughout the season. They can be simplified in three categories: joy when your team wins, anger when they lose, or pride when they give it their all but come up short. One feeling, a lot subtler than those three, which I love seeing in sports is inspiration. This week I found no better example of inspiration than that from the new coach , Paul MacLean aka the man with the killer moustache , of my hometown NHL team, the Ottawa Senators.
We had a rough season in Ottawa in terms of Senators hockey. No playoffs. At one point during the 82 game season we were the worst team in the NHL, before coming to a “positive” finish of 5th last in the league. But there’s always another season in pro sports, and with that comes change. We traded a lot of our veteran players on the team, and fired our head coach. Insert MacLean, to take control of the team. He had this gem of a quote I picked out from his introductory press conference to the media on Tuesday:
“Were just going to get a little bit better each day”
Those words just stuck to me. Yes, it’s a coach saying all the right things to try and get himself acclimatized to a passionate fan base in a highly competitive league. However, it made me look in one area where I strive to get a little better in everyday: reading.
Reading
Everyday, as part of my morning routine, I read the local paper as well as the what is closest to Canada’s national daily (The Globe and Mail) to soak up what’s going on in the local/national environment. As well, I read a book on the commute into work (Malcolm Gladwell’s third book, Outliers is my book of choice right now). Throw in some investing and business reading from online websites, as well as Canadian Business magazine and I’m done in this department. When you break it down that’s a lot of reading and it keeps me learning of what’s going on around me in the world.
As well, reading is something that enhances other areas such as your comprehension skills, vocabulary, and writing one of the key skills in the PR professionals toolbox, and one I’m working hard to develop, both professionally and creatively. Not to mention it’s fun getting lost in another writer’s thoughts, which in turn is usually intellectually stimulating. Especially on warm summer days.
What do you do to get a little better everyday?
Babatunde's Blab 