Off Topic: Remembering what’s important, 3 important life lessons reenfoced by watching Canada win Gold

(re-post from my Facebook account — March 1st, 2010) After watching Canada win the gold in a sports bar last night with a few friends, when I was walking home… I felt alive, happy, to put to just one word “serene”. Indeed, the Olympics and hockey specifically (within Canada) has a way of slowing you down, of waking you up, of pulling you up out of your daily routines and seeing life in a new way. This new way of looking at the world need not end when the big game is over.

Here are 3 important life lessons that were reinforced last night by watching the big game that can be used to enrich the life you lead everyday.

Lesson 1) Time = Wealth

The most important lesson watching the game last night surrounded by a few hundred people is that your time is all you really own in life. And the more you do things with people, the more you realize that your most extravagant possessions can’t match the satisfaction you get from finding new experiences, meeting new people. “Value” is a word we often hear in day-to-day life, but new experiences with people like screaming at a TV screen with 300 other people has a way of teaching us that value is not pegged to a cash amount, that the best experiences in life can be had for the price of showing up.

Scientific studies have shown ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090207150518.htm ) that new experiences (and the memories they produce) are more likely to produce long-term happiness than new things. Since new experiences aren’t exclusive to the Olympics; spend less time working on things you don’t enjoy and buying things you don’t need; spend more time embracing the kinds of activities (learning new skills, meeting new people, spending time with friends and family) that make you feel alive and part of the world.

Lesson 2) Be Where You Are

A great thing about a hockey game is that it forces you into the moment. When you’re celebrating a goal there’s a giddy thrill in being exactly where you are and allowing things to happen. In an age when electronic communications enable us to be permanently connected to (and distracted by) the virtual world, there’s a narcotic thrill in throwing yourself into a single place, a single moment. When you get lost in an event, you get to embrace the privilege of witnessing life as it happens before your eyes. This attitude need not be confined to one hockey game.

At home, how often do you really need to check your email or your Twitter feed? When you get online, are you there for a reason, or are you simply killing time? Even at home, there are sublime rewards to be had for unplugging from online distractions and embracing the world before your eyes.

Lesson 3) Life with out expectations

Hockey is typically structured in to 3 neat 20 minute periods. But this game went into sudden death overtime. It reminded me the world does not always fit into a set of expectations. Going into overtime the game propelled itself into elongated moments of nail biting nervousness about the unknown climax to the game. It was in these final moments that the game became the most memorable. When you live your life free of expectations, that your life will be the most memorable.

That said, there’s no reason why you should confine this sort of freedom and happiness to the big game. In refusing to set limits (expectations) for what is possible on any given day, you open yourself up to an entire new world of possibility.

Naturally, this list is just a sampling of how one exhilarating gold medal moment can remind you of what is important in your life. What have I missed? What has any Olympic moment taught you about how to live your life for the better?
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photo credit: Stoichiometry ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/11324320@N08/3329931806/ )