Where the Change Happens blog by evonhockey

For over a year now, this day has been a dream of mine. A step that I didn’t even realize I wanted to take. As I’ve reflected over my journey the last few years, I realized there were a lot of steps I was unaware of. I was under the impression of go to school, get married, buy a house and have kids. Work 9-5 and retire at 65. That was the mission. Not realistically asking myself, what is it that I want out of life? And what steps do I need to take to get it? So, eventually I found my way to college, married a nice girl, and started down the yellow brick road of life to what I thought I wanted. Sunny days ahead, right? Well, it started off that way. Things eventually started making themselves known that I was not where I wanted to be however. In fact, I succumbed to the idea of college purely because of my love for the game of ice hockey. It’s always been a deep passion of mine, and not always understood by many.  But there I was in 2008, graduating with a degree in Psychology, and my passion feeling sucked from the reality that would be my life going forward. In 2014, I had a ring thrown at me when I made the next hardest decision of my life to that point. Leave a very troubled marriage. I laid awake many nights in the guest room of a friend’s house wondering where I’d gone wrong? It was almost a full year until I met a business success coach that I began the journey to understand what happened, and most importantly, why? Turns out the answer was quite simple. I never asked myself questions about what I wanted or why. Why would I allow someone else to influence my passion for hockey to the point where I didn’t want to play anymore? Why didn’t I follow my plan to transfer schools to play? Why didn’t I tell my fiancé that I would’ve felt more comfortable waiting another year vs get married sooner than I was ready for? It may be too late now for those questions, but my new coach opened my eyes and has helped me develop a blueprint to the life I want. And as crazy as it sounds, I’ve lived a happier life and been more fulfilled more consistently since then.

Additionally, I realized that I didn’t even know what my concrete values were in life! So, I started asking myself, where do I stand on things? Or when had I ever really thought about why I have that belief? And what other areas of my life had given up control of my decisions to? I no longer wanted to live on default anymore. I want to live with purpose. With passion. And with that, I started “Where the Change Happens.” Originally, where the change happened was on my computer. A culmination of tasks I’d taken on to better understand myself and find direction to my mission in life. And the growth of that has become evonhockey. It’s a tribute to my mother’s middle name and my greatest passion. For me it represents taking a chance to fully live my passions without regret and purposefully journey towards my life’s mission according to my values.

First and foremost, I want to be helpful. To whomever I can, and whenever I can be. I actually picked up a stranded person once who seemed in a bad situation and was made fun of at work for giving them a ride. I was there and had means to help, I thought. That’s who I want to be in the world, and so that is who I was. That mentality began developing from where my change happened. “Be the change you want to see in the world” was no longer an inspiring quote in college, but part of my life philosophy. As I progress, I want to share my lessons learned, and the process, and my excitement with others in hopes that I can live another philosophy, “Each one reach one, each one teach one.” This blog represents my journey to live up to a potential I didn’t even realize was achievable. From the books I’ve read, to the podcasts I’ve listened to, I want to share everything that has helped me along the way. As I share, my mission is to help just one person go from a life of uncertainty, to having that aha moment that propels them to their life of purpose and personal fulfillment. I look forward to our journey ahead.