Life Lessons Learned from Beer League

Beer League teaches us a lot of things, some of which you probably don't even realize. In this very special episode (in that after school special voice) we talk about things learned on the ice that are applicable to life off the ice. 

Chapters

• 0:54 Embracing Mistakes
• 2:24 (Re)Learning to Have Fun
• 5:05 Socializing with Real People
• 8:20 You're Not Too Old to Learn New Things
• 11:25 Chemistry is Key
• 14:15 Be Accountable without an Ego
• 17:40 TheBeerLeaguer.Com
• 19:36 Be Passionate About Things
• 22:23 The Post-Game Beer is the Real Trophy

Transcript

THE_BEER_LEAGUER: 0:07

Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Beer Leaguer Podcast. And in this episode, kind of as a wrap up to the season episode, I think most people's beer league seasons have wrapped up or are wrapping up right about now. You know, for me, one of my teams completely wrapped up, the other one, one more game to go. So I thought it'd be a good time to kind of reflect back on things. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about some life lessons learned from playing beer league hockey. So things learned at beer league that kind of apply to outside of beer league. And that's a fun world of real life. And if you haven't learned some of these, maybe some things that you can take away that you have learned and didn't realize earlier. Number one, embracing your mistakes. So obviously when you're playing hockey, you're gonna mess up a lot. Everybody does. The best player is the worst player, we all mess up a ton of times. But it's figuring out what to do with that and how to handle your mistakes, the stuff you screw up on. So if you're on the ice and you keep messing up the same thing over and over and over, how do you fix it? How do you correct it? Is it something you're doing? Is it help from somebody else? Maybe you stop trying to pull a miss again every time you get the puck. Who knows? There's a lot of different things like that, but you have to figure it out. You have to figure out what you were doing wrong, what you keep messing up with, so you don't keep doing that. And no, either avoid it, or like I said, learn better skills, learn something else, do something, but learn ways to round it, but learn ways to correct your mistakes or minimize them. And that's extremely applicable outside of hockey. Same thing in life, you have to do that sort of thing. You have to know what to do when you make mistakes, because everybody screws up stuff, whether it's at work or with your family or any whatever. What do you do? Beer League is a great thing that teaches you that, that mistakes are okay, they happen, but it's how you handle them that really matters. That's the number one lesson, and probably the most important lesson you can take away from Beer League. The next lesson that I want to bring up is learning to have fun again. A lot of times as we turn into adults, we stop doing fun stuff. You know, you have responsibilities, you have to have a job, you know, if you have kids, a family, all these kinds of things and stuff you have to do, and you don't have time, you don't make time for yourself to go do something fun. And that's ultimately what Beer League Hockey is all about, is having fun, having a good time, hanging out with people and stuff. And you know, that's a super important thing to do. And that's just an important thing to remember on ice and off ice, is you gotta still have fun. I mean, ultimately, Beer League is not gonna be your career, more than likely. I don't think there's professional Beer League Hockey players out there. If there is, let me know. I would love to do that for a living. So if there's a way to do that, let me know. But it's, you know, you're doing this for fun. You're doing this to have a good time. And that's okay. And it's totally important to have that. It's important to have that fun thing in your life, have that outlet that you have to do something fun, especially as an adult. Because like I said, a lot of times adults don't do that. So it's important to have fun stuff that you do and that you regularly do. And you're kind of committed and forced into doing it. You know, it's not, it's very different to have a fun thing that you do that you just pick up and do when you can. You know, like say go to a concert. You know, you just kind of pick it up and you can say, hey, I'm going to this tonight. I want to do this. Or you set it a week out or something like that. And you do that versus Beer League, where you kind of have a commitment to going. It's other people are relying on you for it. And it forces you to go and have fun and do something. And that's important because a lot of times that's the stuff that gets cut when life gets busy, those are the things that you usually chop out to get other stuff done. So it's important to make time to have fun. Kids don't usually have this problem because that's most of their life is having fun with stuff. And they will definitely drop boring things to go have fun. Adults, we are terrible with doing that. So Beer League, it's important so adults can have fun too. So and kind of along those same lines of making sure you have fun is really having a place and a way to exercise social skills. You know, again, especially as an adult, probably not going out with much friends all the time like you were as kids. You know, you're not getting to meet as many different people, interact with different people, do different things. I know for me, really, I see people I work with. That's kind of it. That's usually about it besides like some special events that maybe happen a couple times a year where people get together. But that's all you're seeing. And that's not a great thing for people. You want to be able to interact with people and meet people and get to hang out and just remember how to function in society somewhat normally. And Beer League is a great way for that because it's a group of people that probably don't know everybody. I mean, if you stay on the same team for a while, you get to know everyone. But there's the other teams that you play and other people that you meet with it. And it is a great way, again, I'll say as you get to be an adult, to have a community, to have people out there that at least you have one shared interest with and something to talk about. And just to know other people and see people in person. If you're like a lot of people and you work remotely all the time, you probably don't even see the people you work with in person. You just kind of know that they exist out there on the other side of a screen. Whereas for Beer League, it's people that you are right there with and in person with every game. And that's an important thing to have is to have that social interaction with stuff and how to handle those. Because, hey, when you're on a Beer League team, you might get along with a couple of people great, a couple of people you get along with okay, and then some people maybe don't get along great with. And it's kind of a good thing to learn how to navigate that stuff and how to work around those types of things and what to do in those situations. And Beer League is one of the few places that I think most adults actually have to do that and do that properly and do that in a real setting versus a work setting or meeting other kids' parents at an event or something like that. This is a more... How do I want to put that? A more kind of down to earth actual setting of meeting people than you would have in some of these other situations that are more forced into or people are on maybe their best behavior or weird behavior than you would be for Beer League. So that is a very big thing to take away, is how to just kind of interact and live within a community like that where people are very different. I mean, I think on most Beer League teams, not everyone is exactly the same and has the same background and thinks the same and all that kind of stuff. I'm sure that's out there. Most teams aren't like that. So it's an important thing to learn how to interact and, you know, work with in a group setting like that. Another important life lesson that you can learn from Beer League Hockey is it's never too late to start something. You know, I mean, always online, there's always people asking like, hey, I'm whatever age, is that too old to start playing hockey? And of course you have the kids that are saying like, hey, I'm 16, do you think, you know, I want to start playing hockey to think I can make the NHL. Okay, that's probably too late. But you know, you have the people then, and I see this every year, all over on internet forums and like Reddit, and different things like that. You see every summer, lots of people, and I assume it's because people's kids start picking up hockey. Hey, I'm, you know, late 30s, early 40s, and I want to start playing hockey, is it too late? No, it's not too late. I mean, it might be too late to, you know, play professionally or something, but it's not too late at all. It's not too late to try something new. You know, never stop trying to do new things and cool things. You know, for sure. I mean, hockey is a great example of it. I know tons of people that never skated before in their lives, picked it up, you know, as an adult, as someone in their 30s or 40s, picked it up then, love it. You know, they've obviously gotten better, and they have a great time with it. You know, that's something that definitely is applicable to real life, and I think more people should really, you know, think about, or not let it bother them, if, you know, you're older than everybody else out there. I mean, in Beer League, you're not. You know, you're not playing with people that are way older than you, or way younger than you, or anything like that. I mean, I would say that the vast majority of Beer Leaguers are, I would say, probably in their 40s and 50s. That seems to be the case, especially lower levels of people out there are that old. So it's definitely not too late to start. I mean, when you start later, you, one, you have more experience on things and probably know a little bit more kind of what you're doing with stuff, hopefully, and you're better at learning and listening directions and that sort of stuff. But also, too, starting later like that, you have a lot more ramp up to improve because you're starting from nothing. Whereas, you know, the people that have been playing a long time and played a whole bunch as a kid and joined Beer League, you know, later after they have been playing for a long time, they probably don't have that curve that you have for it. So there's advantages to starting when you're older, definitely. And that is extremely applicable to real life outside of Beer League. Because, hey, if there's fun stuff you want to try, there's no use you can't try it. Age doesn't really matter. You know, same kind of thing of people that, you know, go back to school later in life or change careers later in life or things like that. That you shouldn't let age stop you from things like that. And Beer League doesn't and nothing should. So that's a very important life lesson learned from Beer League. Another, another, I think, big lesson that can be gleamed for outside of Beer League from within the locker room is learning how important chemistry is. You know, chemistry amongst your team. I mean, there are teams out there that have a whole bunch of really great players on them, and they're not a great team. They don't work together well. And I've been on teams that have probably not the best talent that we play against, but everybody kind of knows what they're doing. Everybody knows their role. Everybody works together well. We all cover for each other, and you make for a great team. You know, and that's having great chemistry. You know, it's people getting along on and off the ice. It's people understanding what they can and probably shouldn't do and what they're best at and helping like, hey, I'm not really great at this, but I'm good at this, and you're kind of the opposite. So maybe, you know, we can play together and cover up for each other and stuff like that, and getting each other better with other skills and stuff along those lines. I mean, it's team chemistry and it's working together, and it's very apparent when you play hockey, when you play a team sport like that. I think hockey especially because it's really hard to be a one-person show on hockey unlike some other sports. So you have to work together as a team, and that is extremely applicable outside of Beer League, and that's something you can totally take into everything. It's something you can easily take into work and into other things that you have out there to try and build good chemistry with people, and just having a good rapport with everyone in the same way you build a good hockey team is taking everybody's strengths and weaknesses into account and recognizing those strengths and weaknesses and how they work together or don't work together, and how you scramble that all up and mesh it together so that it comes something greater than the whole. Super important life lesson to have, and it's very, very visible on a hockey team. Teams that don't support each other, teams that everyone's trying to do their own thing. It doesn't work well. It looks awkward. You can tell right away. You know, you can see that. You can see when it does work, when it doesn't work. Very, very easily on the ice. And that same exact idea is something that translates 100% off the ice to really just about anything you're doing with at least one other person, and how well or how well it doesn't work out there. So chemistry, learning chemistry, team chemistry, group chemistry, chemistry between two people, all of that. You can learn about it from Beer League. Kind of along those same lines, another important thing to learn is how to be accountable for yourself, but not with a giant ego. Nobody on a Beer League team likes the person that has a big ego. You know, they just don't want to be around them. Nobody likes them, everybody knows that guy. Everybody's had some of them pass through. Maybe you still have some on your team. Hopefully, you're not that person, but nobody likes that person that's got a giant ego. But also, no one likes the person that isn't accountable for anything, or nothing's their fault. You know, that's kind of the same thing in a different way. You know, what's the saying? Two sides of the same coin, sort of thing. You don't want to have a giant ego, because no one likes that. No one likes it on the ice. If you have a giant ego, think you can do everything. And no one likes it if you're not accountable. If every time a goal gets scored and you're out there and you come back and go, what was it me? I had my guy. Doesn't matter if you had your guy or not. No one wants to hear that. No one wants to hear that you did your job, but no one else did their job. That's not good. That's not good for the team chemistry that we just talked about. That's not fun for anybody. So it's being accountable, but also not having an ego about it. You know, being ego-less, but still taking responsibility for your actions out there. It's super applicable on the ice. And again, it's one of those things you can see very, very easily in Beer League. Of the people that have huge egos, think they can do everything. Again, people don't like them. It's very, very easy to see that. And the people that aren't accountable for anything, people just get pissed off at those people all the time when nothing's their fault. I mean, yeah, sometimes you did do everything that you were supposed to do, and you know, goal got scored on you or whatever, but maybe you should have done something else. Maybe you could have helped in some other way. Maybe you shouldn't have just, you know, had my guy, yeah, he was way out of the play. He wasn't doing anything, but he was covered by me. I didn't want to go in and actually help get the puck or, you know, get a puck out or do anything else. But I had my guy that was way out of the play, guys. I mean, that's kind of doing what you're supposed to do, but you're taking no accountability for anything out there. You know, and again, nobody likes that guy. You know, you again, you see that very, very easily, very quickly in Beer League and the same thing outside of Beer League in regular life with those things. So it's being accountable and having an ego. And I'd say along those same lines, being dependable. You know, it's a similar similar thing to those is being dependable as well, you know, is showing up every week or letting people know when you're not going to show up. Nobody likes the person that is a mystery whether or not playing that game and you don't find out. Until, you know, puck drop, you know, or if you're all over the place, you know, some games you're really in it and you're playing well. Some games you're completely out of it and playing terrible. You know, that's that's not fun. That's not great. That's people don't like that. Just being dependable is a big a big thing as well. That's that's huge. It's huge in Beer League and big in life. Real quickly, before we get to the last two life lessons learned from Beer League, I just want to remind everybody, go check out thebeerleaguer.com. On there, you can get all podcast episodes, current ones, old ones, everything you want. 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There's a link in there along with all the links I put for stuff that's mentioned within every episode. There's a link that says text the show. Click that. When you're on your phone, it'll bring up your text app. Just type in your text message and I will get that. It doesn't give me your phone number. It gives me your area code. So I have a general idea of where your phone is from. But if you want to say where you're from in the text message or you want to say your name or anything like that, make sure you put it in there because otherwise I don't know it. But I would love to hear any kind of feedback from this show, other shows, like I said, ideas for future shows that you like to throw out there. Bunch of different ways to get ahold of the show. So all that at thebeerleaguer.com. Okay, back to the last two topics for lessons learned from beer league hockey that can apply to real life and really probably should apply to real life. And these are kind of bigger, more, I think esoterical things, but I think important and important to think about is, you know, the importance of what something like beer league is in your life. Beer league is not a job. Beer league is something that you pay for, you know. And I guess you could call it something that really doesn't matter, but it's something that you care about. And this is all about, it's okay to care about stuff that doesn't have a huge, like, monetary benefit or promotion at work benefit or anything like that. It's okay to care about some of the other things like that, kind of. I don't want to say frivolous, because Beer League is not a frivolous thing, but that's the only word I can think of right now. It's okay to care about stuff like that. You know, some people take it really seriously. You know, it shouldn't run your life, obviously. It's not that serious. But it's okay to be passionate about things. It's okay to have stuff that you're really into and enjoy talking with your friends about, and, you know, being excited about getting to play games and having something else in your life that is outside of kind of your normal day-to-day to enjoy. I think especially as adults, we forget that, and we lose a lot of those things. Because as kids, you know, we get super into, you know, following your sports teams, or, you know, playing video games, or whatever kids do nowadays, you know, and really into Pokemon or something like that. And at the end of the day, none of those things are major things that matter in life. Nothing's life or death, obviously. But it's okay to care about stuff like that. It's okay to care about things that are fun, and, you know, to appreciate that. And going back to one of the previous things of getting to know people, getting to have a group, a tribe of people that you have that also care about the same thing. That's great to have that, you know? To have somebody to share something that you're passionate about with that isn't just, again, like work or family or something like that. It's not just okay, but it's important to have things like that in your life that you can enjoy. And the last one I have here, the last life lesson that I have, I was trying to think how to phrase this one and what kind of the tagline for it should be. And I used a bunch of different ways to try and come up with something. And here's what I came up with. And it's cheesy and it's corny. But it's totally true. Is the post-cane beer is the real trophy. And that is 100% true. Because in Beer League, again, this is not anybody's life playing these games. And sometimes, you can really enjoy the spoils of stuff like that without having to have dire consequences. You know, no matter how the game goes, if you had a great game, you had a terrible game. If your team did great, your team did awful. You know, at the end of it, you still get to sit in the locker room, hang out with a bunch of people that share something you greatly love and that you have fun doing. And you know, crack open a beer, have fun, talk about the game, talk about how great, you know, you guys played, talk about how terrible you guys played, talk about the good plays, the bad plays, whatever. It's important to take moments, not just one or two or occasionally, but to take moments and sit back and take stock of things. And when I say the post-game beer, that's what I'm thinking of, is it's not just the, hey, sit in there and get in and have a beer. It's the, the game's over. You get to sit back in the locker room, and, you know, just take a moment. Just enjoy it. Enjoy then. You know, you're not worried about other stuff going on in your life. You're able to just be in the moment with your team, and, you know, talk about stuff from the game, talk about good stuff from the game, bad stuff from the game, dumb stuff from the game, funny things that happened. And, you know, maybe you're complaining about somebody on the other team. You're ragging on the ref. You know, you're ragging on some of your team that made a dumb play. Whatever. But just be in that moment and enjoy that. And I think that is a huge thing to take away from Beer League that is very applicable to life outside of Beer League hockey, that not enough people really do enough, is, you know, take the time to step away from everything else and just be there for one thing. You know, there's those times in the locker room where it's kind of everything else is out the window. You know, other stuff, issues people are having, problems that they have going on in the real life, stresses, things like that, and get to just enjoy that. You know, enjoy that time there. I know a lot of times when people are having, you know, whatever kind of crap going on in life, you know, at work, with family, whatever, whatever kind of crap is going on, a lot of times Beer League is their escape for it. You know, and it should be, you know, because you can have those couple of hours to kind of get away from that stuff. And that really helps. Gives you perspective on things in life. And that's important to have. And that's important to have that, you know, just to be a healthy person, to have that perspective and be able to get that perspective on things. And for a lot of people, that is Beer League hockey. And that's an important thing to do. And if all you have is Beer League hockey, at least you have that. But having that there hopefully shows you that that's important to have. And you want to have that in other things as well. Have that ability to to step outside of it and, you know, really evaluate other things and just kind of get away and shut off everything else for a little while. That is a very huge thing to have. And that's probably one of, if not the most important things that Beer League allows people to do. And that's also one of the reasons that it helps bring people together. And a lot of the good stuff that happens out of it is because of that, because people are able to kind of shut out everything else around them for, you know, a couple of hours once a week and just care about playing adult league hockey and nothing else. And I think that's a very important lesson to have and something to carry over into the rest of your life. That is important to do that. With hockey, it's important to do that with other things as well, to have that and give you that perspective on things. So that's what I mean when I say the postgame beer is the real trophy, is it's really the settle down after the game, before you kind of put your street clothes on and walk out the locker room and have to start thinking about everything else that's going on in your life, is that little bit of time there, taking that, getting away from things and getting out of your own head for just a little while, is probably the biggest life lesson to take away from Beer League and probably the most important one and the most important thing to do with that. So hopefully if you're not doing that and you're taking that stuff in with you, you start thinking maybe you shouldn't, you know, leave that stuff at the door. It's good for you, it's good for everybody else as well. Okay, that got real serious there at the end. I didn't plan on it being like that. But I think you know where I'm coming from, I think everybody knows where I'm coming from with that. So hopefully some of these life lessons or something you didn't think about, I'm sure all these from the hockey perspective is stuff that you deal with on a game-to-game basis, on a season-to-season basis, and maybe didn't realize some of these skills that you're learning or things that you're picking up from people and doing about it, didn't realize how applicable they are outside of Beer League. You know, and maybe you can use some of those now in your daily life to help out in other situations that you have out there. So hopefully this was a little bit insightful, a little bit helpful. And also, hey, if somebody tells you that Beer League is not important, use some of these points to teach them why it is important and why you do need to keep going to these games and why you do need to be out until two in the morning once a week with your buddies. This is why, this is the stuff you're learning. It's important for you. All right, that's it. Thanks for listening, everyone. As I said before, go check out thebeerleaguer.com. That's got all the ways to get ahold of the show, get ahold of me, all the different stuff that have out there for you to check out from The Beer Leaguer universe of cool stuff. So leave comments, upvote the show, subscribe, send it to your friends. Let them know. Thanks a lot. I'll catch you in the next one.