In Bob Stoops’ excellent autobiography, No Excuses, passages from those who worked with or competed against Stoops are sprinkled throughout. One particular passage that stood out to me comes from Mark Mangino, the man Stoops hired as his assistant head coach and running game coordinator when he arrived at Oklahoma prior to the 1999 season…
“When I got to OU, it was in worse shape than it looked from the outside. But Bob Stoops, he doesn’t let anything beat him down. If I was having a bad day, he’d say, ‘Don’t let them get you twice.’ That was his favorite saying. In other words, deal with a problem once and then move on.”
– Mark Mangino, Former Oklahoma assistant coach and Kansas head coach
Another way Bob Stoops often puts it: “Don’t let them beat you twice.”
Life is full of setbacks and surprises. Whether it’s losing a game, losing a sale, getting bad news, or suffering any other type of setback, it’s how you deal with those setbacks that determines how quickly you’ll turn things around.
One of the worst ways to deal with a setback is to spend time worrying and stewing about it. You can’t go back and you can’t change what already happened. What you CAN do is change what happens next.
Instead of looking backward, you can charge forward and find solutions to whatever problem you’re facing.
Worrying about the problem or wishing that it never happened only makes the problem worse. The time you spend stressing out and ruminating about the problem is time you should be spending either attacking the problem or moving on from it (if it’s something that can’t be undone).
As Bob Stoops says, “Don’t let them beat you twice.” If you’re focusing on the disappointment of a loss last week, you won’t be focusing on what it takes to win this week.
It’s important to realize that this advice can also be applied to problems that haven’t even happened.
How easy it is to worry about what the next game, the next test, or the next week might bring. You can get so caught up in your own fears about what might go wrong in the future that you fail to properly prepare in the present.
“Don’t let them beat you twice.”
Whether it’s something that has happened in the past or something you fear will happen in the future, the proper way to deal with it is to ATTACK AND ADAPT.
Address the problem, attack the problem, and then adapt to whatever comes next. Don’t waste a minute worrying about what might have been or what might go wrong in the future.
Keep moving forward. Attack and adapt.
THINK LIKE A CHAMPION:
“I have what it takes to overcome any problem I face. I will not dwell on the past or worry about the future. I will attack and adapt in the present moment.”
