“There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.” ~ David Lloyd George

How exactly did the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup? What elements went into their championship season?

Lots of them, of course. Good players. Good coaching. But there was at least one other factor, and an article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette laid it out way back in September. The Pens spent part of their pre-season in Stockholm, Sweden, where, among other things, they participated in a city-wide scavenger hunt as a team-building exercise.

Actually, the team-building effort goes back even further than that; the Penguins spent part of the two previous pre-seasons at the Military Academy at West Point.

The point for coaches and athletes is that team-building never stops. Every off-season, every pre-season, every practice, every game, every win, every loss, contains an opportunity to build unity and common purpose.

One part of the article resonates months later. It describes the spirit of the scavenger hunt: “The race wasn’t so much about time as it was about completing missions …”

Sure enough, the ability to complete missions came in handy last Friday when the Penguins had to go to Detroit to win the Cup. They became the first team since 1979 to capture a title by winning Game 7 on the road.

The scavenger hunt can be a lesson to everyone who aspires to achieve. If you want to complete a mission at the end of your season, you better get in the habit of completing missions at the very start. In fact, you better get in the habit of completing missions every day. Set out a task, then focus on completing it.