Developing correct habits of thought is the precursor to all success.

3.         Successful people focus on the task at hand-you cannot sidetrack super achievers-they are consumed with what they are thinking about.

Two important principles collide here. "People get what they expect," and "People get what they focus on." Jacques Lemaire was one of my favorite NHL coaches. I experienced a difficult scoring draught as a player under Lemaire, and after awhile Jacques spent some time helping me out. He placed our backup goalie in net, me at the blue-line and he took a bunch of pucks into the corner. Lemaire ask me to skate hard down the boards, he then passed me the puck and as I approached the net for a shot Lemaire shouted "stop." "Ryan, what do you see" asked Lemaire? I looked hard at the net from my positioning and said "That's the problem Jacques I only see goalie." Jacques took me through this motion a number of times always asking "what do you see" with my reply always the same.

Then Lemaire suggested a slight change. He went on to tell me that earlier video of my play indicated that when I only saw "goalie" at times in the past that I would move appositionally in a lateral direction across the net until I "found net." Wow, so simple yet so profound. With that small adjustment to my game and my confidence, I regained my scoring touch and went on to have a banner offensive year.

In the end we get what we constantly focus on. Had I continued to only focus on shooting at the goalie instead of finding ways to focus on net my success would have been limited. Focusing on the task at hand and the correct tasks over the long haul creates our desired success.