What Champions Focus On While Everyone Else Is Chasing The Win
There’s a moment every high performer faces when the stakes are highest.
It’s the kind of moment that separates champions from the forgettables.
I recently worked with a pro athlete preparing for a moment like this.
It was a high-stakes match. Finals. Against the same team that had beaten them the previous year. You could sense something in the air – the feeling of a rematch. Coaches were even getting tight.
But this athlete had learned something most people never figure out about pressure.
Beyond The Scoreboard
Every high performer, whether you’re an athlete or CEO, has to learn this lesson eventually: it’s not the situation that can break you. But where your mind goes when things get intense can.
Average performers look at the score. They think about winning and losing. About what happened last time. About what everyone will say if they fail.
Champions learn to look somewhere else entirely.
They focus on two simple questions that have nothing to do with the outcome:
“Do I know what I need to do?”
“Do I know the way I want to do it?”
That’s it. No visualization of victory. No positive self-talk about being a winner. Just process. Just execution. Just the next right action.
Why This Works
Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time with full intensity. When you’re thinking about the scoreboard – the results, the pressure, the stakes – you’re not thinking about execution.
But when you anchor yourself to process, something powerful happens. Pressure transforms into focused energy.
This approach works in real-time.
When team members start getting caught up in the pressure and emotions of a big moment, effective leaders don’t give pep talks about winning. They redirect attention with these two simple questions.
Instead of getting lost in the hype or the history, you focus on what you can actually control – executing the next right action.
The Business Application
This isn’t just sports psychology. It’s how peak performers operate in high-stakes environments.
When you’re walking into a crucial presentation, your brain wants to focus on the outcome. Will they say yes? What if they reject the proposal? What will this mean for the quarter?
Champions ask different questions:
Do I know what points I need to cover?
Do I know how I want to deliver them?
When you’re leading a team through a crisis, average leaders focus on the problem. Champions focus on the process.
Do we know what decisions need to be made?
Do we know how we want to make them?
The scoreboard will take care of itself. Your job is to execute with precision.
Making It Automatic
The questions catalyze the shift, but the power of the framework is training yourself to ask them automatically when pressure hits.
Elite performers practice this. They rehearse shifting their attention from outcome to process until it becomes instinctive.
Start small. Next time you feel pressure building – before a difficult conversation, a big presentation, a crucial decision – pause and ask yourself:
Do I know what I need to do?
Do I know how I want to do it?
If the answer is yes, execute. If the answer is no, get clear on the process before you worry about the result.
Standards vs. Scoreboard
Champions don’t play to the scoreboard. They play to their own standards.
They have a way they want to show up, regardless of the stakes. A process they trust, regardless of the pressure. A standard they maintain, regardless of the situation.
The scoreboard is just information. Your standard is what drives performance.
When you focus on your process, your execution, and your own way of doing things, you give yourself the best possible chance at the result. That’s what you own. And what you own, you can build on.
The next time pressure hits, and everyone else is looking at the scoreboard . . .
You’ll be looking at the only thing that actually matters: the next right action.
Be Bold. Take Action. Leave a Mark.
Todd Herman
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