Super Bowl champions have started their season with a loss 13 times, including in 2023 when the Kansas City Chiefs opened with a 26-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints but eventually beat San Francisco for the NFL title.
And of the 59 Super Bowls played, the team that has scored first has gone on to win 38 times. But that means 21 teams that didn’t score first still won the game. Most famously, the New England Patriots fell behind by 25 points in Super Bowl LI but came back to beat Atlanta 34-28 in overtime.
Knowing that it’s possible to overcome a bad start, however, is not a reason to make that a personal strategy! In football and in life, we’d all prefer to start strong and then ride that wave to a strong finish. But I think many of us would benefit by redefining our starting point to each day and then taking steps to start the right way from that point.
What do you define as the starting point of your day?
Breakfast? A morning workout? When you arrive at your office?
How about this: When you wake up.
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I try to start each day with prayer, reading, and by mediating on a simple question: How can I be positive and influence someone today?
John Foley, a former fighter pilot who has been successful in a second career as a corporate speaker and consultant, recently told me about the tool he uses for starting his days, and I think it’s a gem worth using.
“It’s called my Glad to Be Here Wake Up,” John told me when he was a guest on Off the Rak.
He starts by consciously acknowledging the first thought that comes to his freshly awaken mind.
“I just observe,” he said. “And I say, ‘Is it a happy thought or is it a suffering thought?’ Is it like, ‘What’s the next email I gotta check? What’s the next problem I have?’ Or, ‘What am I grateful for?’ … And if it’s a negative thought, I just put it in the back of my head. I call it compartmentalization. I say, ‘You know what? I’ll get to you later.’”
Then he dives into a scripted thought session with himself.
He lists three things he’s grateful for in the present moment (the beauty of the day, for example, or things like his health, his wife, and their dogs). Then he goes back 24 hours and reflects on an “image of something joyful.” Next, he thinks forward about the day to come.
“Go forward in your day, think of others, and then set your intention,” he said. “How do you want to show up today? So today I said, ‘I want to show up present. I want to show up powerful. I want to show up peaceful.’ And that’s it. That’s my job.”
Leadership is hard, but that’s why it’s all the more important to start each day with the right mindset – an attitude of gratitude about what we have in life, about the joy we’ve experienced, and about the opportunities to make a difference in the lives of the people we encounter.
Establishing that mindset before we get out of bed won’t remove our troubles or our challenges. But even if we lose a game or fall behind by a few touchdowns, we are more likely to push onward with a positive attitude, do our best and appreciate our relationships and our opportunities. Then no matter what the scoreboard says, we win.
