When we lose, we have a tendency to be introspective and examine what went wrong and how we can fix it. This is great in that if things aren’t going well it will give us a chance to examine ourselves and the team and see what we can do to make things better and ensure that we get back on the right track.
When we lose and things aren’t going well people have a tendency to panic. In their panic they will look to ways to fix what isn’t working. Some tinkering is important, but too much tinkering can make things worse. There is a fine line between too much tinkering and too little tinkering, and the main question is what your goal is? Is this simply a slump that you are experiencing and you just want to make a few adjustments? Or is this an ongoing issue and a full rebuild is in order? Lastly, you could be playing well and simply not getting the results you are looking for. In this case is there really any adjustment that must be done? These are the questions you must ask yourself when things aren’t going well. And the way you answer will determine what must be done.
The question though is what happens when things are going well? What happens when you are winning all your matches?
This is where things tend to get tricky. When you are winning and everything is going the way you want it to people have a tendency to believe that there is no need to change anything. I would argue though that when things are going well it is almost more important to work harder to continually grow.
Allow me to elaborate. When things are going well we become complacent. We believe that since we are winning there is no need to change or grow. The issue though is that as our complacency grows our opponents will also grow. They will be watching and examining us. The more they examine the more they will learn and the more they will be able to adapt and find ways to defeat you. If you do nothing to grow, while they are growing you will eventually lose your footing.
As I said, when things are going well it is very easy to become complacent and stop learning and growing. Whereas when things are going poorly we have a tendency to work to grow, change and adapt. As I mentioned, it is important to grow, change and adapt when things aren’t going well. But when things are going well, it is even more important to continually work to grow and adapt to stay ahead.