Earlier this year, I went around my team and asked the following question: “If you were to travel back in time to high school, what would you tell yourself knowing what you know now?” What better way to hear from New Zealand’s best hockey players, some of them the best in the world, about their time at high school.

Let’s get real. It’s winter. It’s cold. It’s dark. If you’re human, I’m sure you’ve caught yourself with some pretty negative thoughts lately. I know I’ve been having a fair few, especially last week. I’ve found myself complaining a whole lot more than normal, and I’ve noticed what an impact it’s had on my well being. I often get told that a strength of mine is that I try and find the positive out of a lot of bad situations. I think this comes down to my upbringing, watching my family have the ‘glass half full’ attitude with life.

After the Olympics last year, I found myself in a bit of a rut. I knew I had to dedicate the next six months to rehabbing my knee, but while I was doing that, I needed to figure out what to do with my career. I graduated in 2013, worked at a marketing company for two years, and then committed a year to the Olympics where my main focus was hockey. Once I got back from Rio, that daunting question was floating around in my head… “Now what?” I didn’t want to go back to an office job, so I made the leap into self employment. When I made that leap, I felt really self conscious about what to tell people that I do for a job. It hit me the most when I went to fill out a form, and staring back at me was a big space next to the word “OCCUPATION: ________________"

“When I’m worried and cannot sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep” Gratefulness is something that we are so often too busy for. How often do we actually stop and think, “wow, I’m so grateful for this opportunity” “I’m so grateful to have this delicious cup of coffee” It sounds super cheesy, but it can change your attitude in a few minutes if you remember to practise it.