Picture this.
You are a fly on the wall in a college hockey locker room after the 1st period.
You scan the room of tired, sweaty, faces. It is dead quiet. All of a sudden the door comes crashing open. BOOM.
“What the fuck was that?! 3 GOALS! IN OUR BARN! Pointing fingers and kicking the garbage can. D-man, forwards, tendy, get your shit together. Tie your bootlaces up.
“YOU BETTER COWBOY UP!”
The players slowly look around and start nodding their heads. It is still quiet. Yet a wizz of swagger comes back into the room. The players were bucked off their horses but it’s time to get back on. It is time to cowboy up. Fist bumps. More first bumps.
“Let’s fucking go, boys,” - over and over as we wait in the tunnel to hit the ice.
Occasionally, you meet strong men who instill a little piece of wisdom into your DNA on how to carry yourself in life. One of my hockey coaches in college “CD” was one of those great men. Honestly, most of my hockey coaches are great men from whom I have learned countless lessons. This lesson just stands out and encompasses those teachings.
Cowboy up - a short, simple mantra for many situations in life. Similar to “and this too shall pass” but with more vigor and action.
Whenever you are going through the suffering of life, whether it’s in your mind or reality, you can remind yourself to cowboy up.
"Cowboy up" is an idiom, an anthem, that means to be tough, resilient, and brave in the face of adversity. Our hockey coach could have given a long drawn-out speech about the X and O’s. Yet, sometimes it is the mind you need to overcome first. Quiet the mind for the mind is not you.
Something to not forget right?
Something I’ll never forget now. Something I’ll never forget is having a conversation with my best friend’s dad one summer day.
He is reading a book. Stops. Gives me that little smirk he does.
“Marcus. I have two rules for all my kids. One, be a man, and two if you forget the first rule call me.”
Cowboy up. Be a man. Sometimes you need a tattoo to remind yourself how to walk on your own two feet. Sometimes you need to pick up on the phone and “call me”.
Becoming a good man takes time. Calloused hands, old stories, and great men shape us.
Cowboy up,
-Molesy
Marcus. Life is just a long line of successes and failures but it is the failures that teach us the most. Every turning point in my life has come from an incredible low. It is how you respond to those lows that define your character. While you may not be in a hockey locker room any longer, you are entering the next period of your life after getting banged up by the other team. Get out there and hit the ice bud. And anytime please feel free to reach out.