http://thoffonline.com

Man! It’s been an incredibly long time since I’ve posted up a blog. Mainly because when I stopped blogging the Freewheel Project started it’s launch locally and man that kept me pretty busy with training and racing also being a priority. To be honest right now I’ve been even more busy trying to line things up for next year sponsorship wise on top of sealing the envelope on the Freewheel Projects 501(c)3 status. If that isn’t enough i’ve been trying to push while I can on my public speaking front of things. So if you can imagine the time i’m spending sending emails, writing proposals and training and rehabbing my ACL reconstructed knee, it’s hectic!

I named this blog the #2 pencil because i’m going to talk about making mistakes and correcting them not walking away from them. When I was a young athlete I absolutely abhorred correction from coaches. I did not want to hear anyone tell me I was doing something wrong or that I could be doing something differently. The more I look into my past the more I recognize this..if I am passionate about something I have an incredible ability to work extra hard at perfecting what i’m doing. I take pride in the “work” (hopefully someone gets a laugh from that) I do and my natural response to anyone that comes in with a piece of information to help is become defensive. Now, it does not matter if this information can help or destruct me.. The response is defensive and sometimes I find myself getting discouraged about the words because I begin to feel like all of my work is not paying toward some kind of finish line I see myself crossing.

Recently a lot has been going on.. I’ve been trying to access outlets for public speaking, dialing in the Freewheel Project ect as mentioned above. Some really great things have happened in this time. Former NBA star Chris Herren www.ahoopdream.com came in contact with me and offered a bit of help.  Chris has went through a variety of things similar to my story and is giving back in a major way!  He even has a 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN playing called “Unguarded” check your listings and don’t miss it, it’s awesome!

Chris connected me with his public speaking agent and she was happy to speak with me over the phone.  My most optimistic side of me was hoping that she and I would be able to connect and she would be able to help me get jobs public speaking around the country.  The talk did not go as I imagined (dreamed haha) and my immediate feeling was disappointment.  Funny thing,  I shouldn’t even be disappointed because here is a lady going out of her way to tell me if Chris considers me a friend then so does she and that she would love to help me along and guide me as I progress. She felt that I wasn’t quite ready for the company that she worked for but gave me some things she felt I could tweak with my website and things.  She encouraged me to contact her whenever I needed and looked to hear from me in 4 weeks.

For some reason I found myself stuck on the words she said not being ready for that stage… Remember how I said that I become defensive over those things I feel i’m working hard to achieve? I almost fell back into that old way of thinking.  Personally, I think it’s pretty natural to feel a certain way to something you experience, however, the way we THINK after we experience the natural reaction determines the actual outcome of the happening.  Thankfully I was able to connect with how I felt initially at the things she said I could do better and how I would of reacted in my past ways of thinking and doing.  Noticing this allowed me to immediately take on a newer kind of thinking… One that didn’t focus so much on how hard I’ve worked to this point but one more of, “Ok, so this is where I go from here, I will make that move and not only make that move but with my continued focus I WILL continue to improve”  and the butter to making that move is this, as soon as I put that move into action I AM improving.

So many times in my past I became offensive to words that weren’t even meant to offend or bring me down because I focused on the work I was doing and how hard I felt I was working that, “How dare someone have anything to say.”  A lot of times I made mistakes that were correctable with a change in approach, thought, or execution and turned them into permanent failures by simple walking away.

People are in our lives to help us… It doesn’t matter if it’s to teach us to have stronger skin to harsh words, or solid words of wisdom to move you along in your dream.  I’ll give you a example before I close out.  Most of my followers know that myself and Greg Romero did not see eye to eye for quite some time, we have since reconciled and during a phone call of reconciliation he said to me that he felt I was overlooking the mental aspect of racing.  Even though this came from a man at the time I did not care for I really examined those words.. It wasn’t long before I accepted that he was right, I needed to put some attention into my mental thought process of my racing. It took a lot longer to accept that as fact then it did for me to take the words from Chris’s agent and start applying them but life is about learning and growing not walking away and rotting!

I have reconstructed my bio page to conform to a more professional feel and will continue to make some small subtle changes like that to suit my goals for the future.  What I do today is the foundation that tomorrow will stand on and I intend to make sure the foundation is earthquake ready and rock solid. A Freewheel Project.org page is in the works so be ready for that! Thanks for your time

THoff “Tony Hoffman”

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THoff