Part 1

The first turning point in my life was in 2015 when I decided to stop caring. I’ve thought a lot about what to call the philosophy I adopted since “The Don’t Care Philosophy” doesn’t exactly draw attentive ears, but there’s just no better way to describe the freedom I found besides I simply stopped caring.

It’s completely counterintuitive to what we hear a lot of. The media will tell you ten thousand and one things you need to care more about and make compelling arguments for every one. It sounds great but it’s wrong. You don’t need to care more, you need to care less. Bear with me.

In 2015 I was coming off the worst hockey season of my career. No, I wasn’t playing in the NHL or anything noteworthy, but it was the most important thing in my life. My mood and my entire sense of well being hinged on my performance playing hockey. I don’t know what it was that inspired me to do this, but prior to the 2015-2016 season, I decided to stop caring. I mean completely let go of any emotional investment into the sport whatsoever. Lo and behold, I started to actually have fun. I didn’t care if we won or lost, I didn’t care if I scored, if I was on the 1st line or 4th line, I just played. If you asked my teammates from the time, they would’ve had no idea. Not caring doesn’t mean not working hard or not executing at your greatest capabilities, it just means you can still smile when things inevitably don’t go your way.