A three-peat (or not). Preseason all-conference picks and polls. Defending champs. NIL money. Top recruit or transfer.
All honors. All pressure. All this before the games begin...or all season long!
Winning championships and closing record-breaking deals are exhilarating…the opportunity to win like this keeps us hungry. But what comes next?
Often, this euphoria of victory quickly turns into the weight of expectation.
Suddenly, we're no longer the hunter—we’re the prey!
Last week we talked about the pressures we carry after a tough year and why moving on is essential for performance. But it’s not only the tough stuff that weighs us down. Winners have pressure, too!
As coaches and leaders, we know this feeling all too well. After climbing to the top, there’s the little voice that sneaks in that no one wants to admit exists that says, “What if we can’t do it again?” Research shows (but we don’t need academics to tell us) that defending a title and maintaining elite performance brings unique pressures, many of which can hold us back if not managed properly. Hence the saying that it’s easier to win a championship than defend it.
The good news is that we don’t have to play defense against the fear of failure. Instead, we can stay on the hunt—adapting, evolving, and reframing the challenge ahead. As my Vikings at Portland State say as they dive into the 2025 season with big expectations… but different, it’s time to “rewire to refire!”
The cool part about my job is I get to work with champions. And champions win. Then they need to win again. My job is to help them do as Rosabeth Moss Kanter said in Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, “Win, work, win again!”
But what does this “work” look like?
I know defending a championship is tough. Most championships are won with a team full of veterans. And the tough thing about that is that those veterans graduate leaving those that are left to fill their shoes.
And that is where the issues begin.
Conroy, et. al call it the fear of failure paradox. After a big win, we often become more risk-averse because we have more to lose. Defending titles or awesome performances triggers anxiety and overthinking. We become trapped in the idea that we MUST replicate our past rather than understanding that we aren’t the same after a big win either. We have learned. We have evolved.
We are different. But or tendency is to default to the same strategies that led to success, even when conditions change.
Throw in Iso-Ahola & Dotson’s psychological momentum, that moment when we start focusing on protecting our status rather than earning success, we lose our edge and a repeat becomes even harder!
No matter what, staying on top requires some sort of shift.
It’s not about filling shoes. It’s about making sure the ones you are walking in are the right ones for the job. I never talked about the “rewire to refire” process as being on the hunt, but I will be after hearing Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy whose life was the impetus for the movie A Beautiful Mind discuss this approach in Episode 213 of the Huberman Lab Podcast. He said the best competitors don’t see a new season as a repeat of the last one. Like the Viks “rewire to refire”, he says great teams reset, not looking for a repeat, and stay on the hunt because the team is different, the landscape has changed and success requires a fresh approach.
Think about a hunter. As he approaches the day, the lay of the land may be the same as it was yesterday and he may have some of the same tools, but everything else changes. Timing, lighting, weather, his focus and alertness and the types of animals he may encounter are all different, most of which are out of his control. As he expands his approach, new tools are needed, too! The animals in the area may adjust…and if he doesn’t, he goes home hungry.
Bottom line? The hunter must evolve.
But the hunted…the prey…focus on avoiding mistakes and become reactive instead of proactive.
Waitzkin encourages us to ditch the “last year we…” talk. Yes, we need to know what worked and what didn’t. As we have discussed over the past few weeks, using our Well-Better-How is important for improving performance and, as JP Nerbun, author of The Culture System told my class on Thursday, “Winning gives us information and losing gives us information.” We need it all to get better.
Even so, if we hang on so tightly to what worked before, we can get stuck in a rut. Coming off a big win or a great year, we try to replicate the formula that led to our success. This isn’t a bad thing in itself.
BUT…if we hang on too tight, we can easily forget that circumstances change, competition adapts and our growth can stall when we cling to old methods or expectations.
We don’t need a replica. We need to recreate. If a painter has new colors or a different canvas, she can still create a masterpiece. It may not look exactly like it did with her other materials, but she figures out how to make something great with what she has!
I’m not suggesting we throw the baby out with the bathwater like we want to do when things go wrong. However, understanding that we aren’t the same…and our competition sees us differently, too…helps us adapt when we need a tune-up or an adjustment to get the most out of what we have now!
As Indiana Softball Coach, Shonda Stanton says at least 25 times a day (maybe more) “Winners adjust!”
Rather than defaulting to past strategies, elite performers remain adaptable. If we can recognize when we’re following the same script just because it worked before…and shy away from any adaptation, we can use this awareness to OTL (observe the landscape) and adjust!
When we get caught looking back at “the bar” that was, we can use the tactic we used last week to move on from the past. We can count the ways this season is different because the people in the room are different. New players or employees bring fresh dynamics and even if we have the same roster or leadership team, their experiences, challenges, and chemistry shift over time. Veterans have changed, too, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
We are not the same!
After a major win, we have two choices: Try to hold onto past success and risk stagnation or treat the next challenge as an entirely new hunt.
The best leaders, teams, and organizations choose to hunt. The moment we start defending instead of attacking, we lose the edge that got us there in the first place.
So, as you enter this next phase, ask yourself, are you on the hunt for something new and evolving or are you just trying to protect what you’ve built?
Because the moment you stop hunting—you become the prey.
Instead of fearing the pressure of expectations, use it as an opportunity to refocus your purpose.
We need stress to grow…and it becomes fuel when framed correctly.
A simple shift from “We’re not defending anything—we’re attacking something new” can free us from the fear of failure and keep us looking at what’s in front of us.
Kobe Bryant famously said, "Pressure is a privilege." The key is using it to our advantage and keeping it from turning into fear.
Here’s to your reset, rewire and recreating. Get on the hunt!
Manage the moments!
Julie
P.S. It’s not too late to start improving your mental game. Let’s build a plan and help your team design their Mental Performance Operating Systems and improve their performance! Contact me to find out how!
Send me a text at 234-206-0946 or an email at juliej@ssbperformance.com and schedule a call to see how we can enhance your program’s mental approach!
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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