I am 39 years old. I just realized why Alexander Ovechkin still scores goals and I quit the gym last year
I am not a Capitals fan. Honestly, I do not follow hockey at all. But yesterday a single number popped up in my feed and it literally froze me. Alexander Ovechkin at 39 years old, no let’s be honest, at almost FORTY years old, is still playing in the NHL. And not just dragging his feet out there, but scoring goals so hard that twenty year olds fall flat on the ice. And then I remembered myself. A year and a half ago I bought a gym membership. A nice one with a pool and a sauna. I went for exactly three weeks. Then came the work overload, then the weather was wrong, then I was just tired. In the end I pay for a card I do not use and every month I feel like a loser. And you know what the worst part is? I thought this was normal. That after 30 your body gives up, that old age is no joy, that everyone lives like this.
But Ovechkin broke that template. And today I want to talk not about hockey. I want to talk about why we give up and he does not. And why the story of this Russian guy from Moscow is medicine that any psychologist would prescribe you, but that no one actually takes.
The paradox starts with a simple fact. Have you ever thought about how many people around you live with the mindset of “after 35 it is just waiting for retirement”? Raise your hand silently if your boss is younger than you. Or if you were offered an interesting project and you said no because you can not handle it anymore. Or if you look at teenagers with their TikTok and catch yourself thinking: they speak a different language, they live in a different universe, I no longer fit in. This is called age segregation, and we are the ones who lock ourselves in that cage starting around thirty.
And now the scariest part. Your own family and friends open that cage. “Where are you going this late?”, “Running will destroy your knees”, “At your age it is time to settle down”. We hear this so often that we start believing it. And Ovechkin is a challenge to everyone who says these phrases. Look at him. He does not look 39. He moves as if time has stopped for him. And this is not genetics, not Russian doping, and not a magic pill. This is a tough, merciless, inconvenient for everyone routine.
Once he was asked in an interview about the secret to his longevity. He said it short, the way he is used to speaking on the ice. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I work every day. And I love what I do.” Simple to the point of ridiculousness. We search for complex schemes, courses, marathons of desires, but the answer lies on the surface. Love what you are paid for. And work every day.
But let us dig deeper. Ovechkin is not about discipline. For us, discipline is associated with violence. Forcing yourself, breaking yourself, enduring. That is a road to nowhere, because sooner or later your psyche will rebel. You will crack and go for a cake, for alcohol, for three days of procrastination. Ovechkin is about something else. He is about a system where the pleasure of the process is higher than the pleasure of the result.
Remember how we used to kick a ball around in the yard as kids until it got dark? Nobody paid us a salary, nobody gave us bonuses. We just enjoyed it. Ovechkin has kept that childish, almost hooligan attitude toward the game. Look at his goals. He does not just score, he smiles, falls on the ice, shakes his fists. He enjoys it so much that you can see it through the screen.
And here lies the main insight for you and for me. We do not lose energy because we are getting older. We lose energy because we stopped enjoying things. We work for money, we go to the gym for six pack abs, we learn English for a checkmark. We have robbed ourselves of the joy of the moment.
How to fix this? The answer is harsh. No way. If you were waiting for a magic pill, it does not exist. But there is an algorithm. And it starts with a small betrayal.
Betray your age. Stop using the number as an excuse.
They told Ovechkin he would be finished at 35. That the young guys would tear him apart. He has scored more goals than anyone in league history. Despite his age, despite the critics, despite the fact that two years ago everyone was writing off his career.
Now a personal story I have never told anywhere before. My grandfather decided to get behind the wheel at 65 years old. He had walked his whole life, but then he bought an old Ford. The relatives said, “You have lost your mind, your reaction is not the same, you will kill yourself.” My grandfather signed up for driving school and passed the theory on his first try. Driving was hard, the instructor swore at him. But after half a year my grandfather was driving to the neighboring town to buy fish. And you know what he used to say? “As long as I learn something new, I am alive. The moment I stop, I will lie down in the coffin.” He lived to be 89. And in his final years he drove around the region like a taxi driver. What does this mean? It means that neuroscientists have long proven that the brain ages exactly when it stops encountering novelty. Ovechkin solves a new problem in every game. Goalkeepers change, tactics adapt, he cannot play by a template.
And you? Is your day similar to the previous one? Same road, same coffee, same conversations. Of course you are tired. You are dying of boredom, not of age.
So here is the contrast you have not noticed. An average office worker at 35 complains about back pain and high blood pressure. Ovechkin at 39 takes a stick to the ribs and gets back up. The difference is not in health. The difference is in mindset. The worker sees pain as a reason to stop. Ovechkin sees pain as part of the journey.
He is not a robot after all. He has had injuries, failures, scoreless streaks. Last year his team did not even make the playoffs. He could have said, “That is it, I am old, I will leave beautifully.” But he came back in the new season and started scoring again.
And here I am approaching the most dangerous part. Because now the excuses will start. “He is an athlete, he has resources.” “He has a team of doctors.” “He has no daily chores or loans.” I hear this every time I bring up examples of such people. And this is a lie that it is convenient for us to believe. Ovechkin has two young sons. He moved to another country at 20, with no language, no money. He carried the game for Washington for almost 15 years before winning the Stanley Cup. He was called a loser who did not know how to win in the playoffs. He did not give up. And this is not about hockey. This is about choice. You can choose a convenient story about circumstances. Or you can admit that the fear and laziness inside us are the only real obstacles.
I ran a small experiment. Last week I asked subscribers in one channel to do one simple thing. Wake up 15 minutes earlier and spend that time on something they used to enjoy. Not on work, not on cleaning, not on children. On themselves. Some drew, some read poetry, some just sat with a cup of tea and looked out the window. Do you know how many unsubscribed? No one. But dozens of thank you messages came in. People said, “I forgot what it felt like to belong to myself.” Ovechkin belongs to himself every morning. Because his morning does not start with a quick glance at the news, but with movement.
The final blow I want to leave in your head.
We often think that viral stories are about drama or humor. No. Viral stories are about recognizing yourself in another person. Alexander Ovechkin right now is a mirror for everyone over thirty, forty, fifty. If he can, why can not you?
You are not required to score 900 goals in the NHL. But you can stop complaining about your age when you are offered a training course. You can stop sighing when you look at the sneakers you bought three years ago. You can at any day, right now, do what you have been putting off for later. You do not have a later. You only have right now.
And one last thing. Ovechkin is chasing Gretzky’s record. He is less than two dozen goals away. And the whole world is holding its breath. But you know what will happen when he breaks the record? He will go out on the ice and score another one. Because the point is not in records. The point is to never stop.
And I will end with a question that you will want to forward to everyone who feels stuck. If you knew you could not lose, what new thing would you start tomorrow?
