Peter Thiel has a question worth thinking about.
Especially as an athlete in youth or junior hockey where you think you have more time than you do. This question is massive in developing systems that will make you successful.
How can you achieve your 10-year goal in 6 months?
When we have more degrees of freedom and the deadline is further away, we put off the work.
If you have an assignment due in 3 weeks you’ll start on it the night before.
Shorten the runway on yourself and see how much more focused and intentional your work gets.
If your junior hockey career can be 3 years long based on your age, what systems do you need to adopt to achieve a college scholarship in 1 year?
Even if you don’t get there after year one, you’ll be miles closer because you constrained your timeline and focused your work. You didn’t waste days because you didn’t feel like you had days to waste.
Constrain yourself, set your own deadlines that are more strict than the ones given to you.