As we celebrate the recent victory of the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, I’m reminded of the power of the mind and our ability to focus. After all, the two teams were physically very well-matched, and these are some of the fastest and strongest athletes in the world. So what makes the difference? How can the defense be missing tackles in the first half and then come back out in the second half and be so much more effective?
Many of the players said they were reminded to ‘be themselves’ during half-time. I think that summary hints at a very useful tool for overcoming all kinds of challenges in sports or in life.
The idea is that you will always do better if you have the initiative. Suppose you are playing the game on your terms.
We don’t have the media attention that an NFL player does, but we have a lot of distractions and pressures in our lives. If we live our lives worried about what that difficult person is going to do next, well, then we are on the defensive. We are no longer using our minds to solve the problem. Instead, we end up feeling victimized and powerless.
The biology is that when we think we are powerless, we shut down both physically and mentally. It’s as if the mind realizes, ‘I can’t win here, so why bother thinking about it anymore?’
So I think what the Chief’s players took from that half-time was that even if they lose, they are going to do it by playing their game and attacking the challenge on their own terms.
And this is a concept we can all use. When you find yourself worried about ‘what will they do?’ or ‘how will this turn out?’, try and turn that idea around. Bring your focus back to how you want to handle this situation. What do your values tell you the best way to handle this situation is? When you commit to what you know is the right path for you, then your mind and all of your creative resources will engage in finding ways to make that happen.
This doesn’t mean everything in your life will be perfect. But no matter how things turn out, you won’t have any regrets if you’ve played the game on your own terms.