good morning, and thanks for opening this blog post, i know your time is really important, and yet you show up week after week, helping to make the statistics on this blog exceed what it should be.
now as you know, i am super competitive, and if i’m going to do anything, i’d preferably like to win, or if winning isn’t an option i’d like to be as good as possible.
now in a world that sometimes reveres folk for taking part, i think playing ice hockey as a ten year old little boy was where i discovered who i was, and when my competitive nature first started to appear, as i used to train and practise ridiculous amounts, on the ice, and off it.
as a goalie, reflexes were really important, and i developed a ‘home reflex improvement system’, which i have just given a name too!
this ’system’ consisted of 3 foot 9 inch jeff donning my leather catching glove on my left hand, with a green fluffy tennis ball resting in its pocket, and an ‘arthur ashe’ donnay wooden tennis racket in my right hand.
there I stood in my cream and brown bedroom, facing my nemesis, my bedroom wall.
i tossed the ball up towards the waiting racket.
thwwack, thud, oof.
thwack as the racket head connected with the ball, projecting it towards the heavily flocked wallpaper, ‘thud’ as it hit the wall, then, cat like, i sprung into action, hand and eyes co-ordinating to catch the furry projectile in the safety of my gloves soft pocket, ‘oof’.
the grandstand cameras filmed it, the crowd in wembley arena went wild, and my team mates tapped my leg pads with their sticks, out of appreciation for saving the leagues top scorer from putting his shot where mumma keeps the peanut butter, top shelf.
i fantasised a lot.
thwack, thud, oof, i repeated the exercise, again, and again, and again, building the speed up, faster and faster, thwack, thud, oof, thwack, thud, oof, thwackthudoof, until i was hitting the ball and catching it as fast as i possibly could.
after practising this exercise for what seemed like hours, i would stop, sweat dripping, and i knew. my speed, my reactions, my hand eye coordination were all improving, and so was my performance on the ice.
this dogged attention to practice was to become a theme running through my life, and i pride myself in giving it my best shot, and hopefully seeing the fruits of my labour manifest themselves, and lo and behold, many years alter, as a professional ice hockey goalie, i stood facing the greatest british ice hockey player to have skated on the milky white ice at wembley, and after a tied game, sudden death overtime, and 23 penalty shots, grandstand showed it to 11 million viewers, the crowd in wembley arena cheered, and the fantasy became a reality.
dream big, work hard, and anything can happen.
but what has this trip down memory lane got to do with this blog?
i was highlighting my competitive nature, and last week i had a look at some of the data around open rates of blogs, and we are outperforming industry standards massively with an open rate last week of 44.6% which in the summer, when lots of folk are on holidays, is amazing, so a massive thank you for your time, and consistency, i really appreciate it, and apologies for the randomness of every one, they are never planned in any way, they just appear.
now, as well as a great open rate, i also studied the data behind our clicks, and last week, where i put a link to get help from our therapists if you needed it, we had 13 people click the link, that’s a big number, and if anything stimulates me to get up every friday morning, it’s to think that just possibly we can help one person who is struggling to reach out and get help, so here is the link again, please use it, or pass it on, we are here to help.
https://hope.bigmoosecharity.co/registration/new-patient
we also saw 4 people click through and sign up to give a monthly donation, so thank you rockstars one and all, so if you would like to support our work, here is the link to sign up:
donate here
i hate asking, but i see the results of the work you fund very day, and to finish up today i will tell you a quick story of how.
yesterday, as i sat at my keyboard in our offices, the sun shone brightly through the windows, bathing me in it’s warm glow, i heard our lead therapist john, walking towards me and the girls, and without looking up i could hear other footsteps.
chloe walked towards john, and a young person, slight in stature, in their twenties, and with an air of confidence about them, as i looked up.
i could hear john telling chloe that this young person had just had their fourth therapy session, and had graduated, no longer needing john’s help, and ready to take on life, armed with a tool belt full of tools to cope, manage and thrive.
i couldn’t help myself, i clapped noisily, and said congratulations to the person, but also john, as his work had changed this fractured human beings life for the good, and as they walked back toward the door, i felt so fortunate that this is my job, this is what i do, and the reward for the effort that everyone that works at bigmoose, and you, our bigmoose family allow me to have, so thank you, thank you for reading, thank you for supporting, and thank you for caring, this young person and the world need us.
blue skies,
jeff
