My 12-year-old just demonstrated the secret to massive success

What children can teach you about achieving your goals

My son has an atypical brain and an atypical hobby.

Like me, he’s a restless, ADHD-type who can be both scattered at times and laser focused when he finds something he’s really interested in.

Also like me, he loves going to the gym.

This isn’t what you would call a normal habit for a 12-year-old, but for some reason he’s always been drawn to it.

He’s a competitive hockey goaltender, and any time we’d go to a travel tournament, all he’d want to do is go to the hotel gym. Like he wanted to go run on the treadmill in between games.

Like me, he needs to be in constant motion or he gets uncomfortable, both mentally and physically.

So you can imagine his excitement when he finally turned 12 this year and was thus eligible for his own membership at our local fitness centre.

A milestone is reached

As I was on the stair climber, he came up to me with the biggest smile on his face. He’d been stretching on the mat behind me beforehand.

“Dad,” he exclaimed with joy on his face. “Look at this!”

I’m not a flexible athlete by nature, and neither is he. As you can imagine, however, flexibility is very important for hockey goaltenders.