Super Bowl week and another year with the Kansas City Chiefs knocking on the door of a title. Living in the Des Moines area, just 3 hours from KC, I’ve witnessed how the past 7 years have regenerated this fan base. At first, when Mahomes started to showcase his magic, there were so many around the sports world that informally jumped on the KC bandwagon. It was new, intriguing, and fun to watch. Mahomes quickly rose to stardom reaching the AFC championship in his first full season followed up by a Super Bowl victory the following season. Fast forward to this weekend, Mahomes will be playing for his 4th Super Bowl in only his 7th season as a starting QB.
What’s been interesting to watch as an outsider (I’m a Bears fan and don’t understand what winning is) is the bandwagon got big quick for Mahomes and the Chiefs, but lately the sports world has started to share a lot less love for the Chiefs. This once new and exciting story has turned into an old and stale narrative. Many sports fans are now seeking a new story to be created with the Chiefs no longer on top. How did we so quickly see fans go from bandwagon to being tired of the Chiefs’ sustained excellence? There seems to be this feeling you can have success…but not too much success.
While I may not get a popularity vote for bringing this up, I also see this dynamic displayed often in support for others on their growth journey. This is not a fun topic to write about, but I believe it needs to be out in the open. I’ve seen and heard it happen too many times. If we’re seeking improvement, it’s not uncommon to have a big support system to start. The bandwagon is plentiful at the beginning. Maybe you’re trying to shed some pounds and when you chat with others, everyone is behind you telling you you’ve got this. As progress starts to show and you’re feeling great about the shape you’re in and the weight you’ve lost, the cheers seem to be a little quieter or nonexistent.
Or maybe you’ve been placed on this important project team at work and your peers have made comments at the beginning how big of an impact you’ll make. As the project team gains traction and huge benefits are realized, more recognition and praise from leadership may come your way. Yet, the praise and support from peers seems to become quieter or nonexistent.
I’m not saying this happens in every situation. There are tons of Accelerators out there that are cheering for others no matter what stage you’re at. But reality will show there are also those that struggle with their own insecurities. They are okay with you having some success, but not too much. Too much success can start to bring out their own self-doubt and insecurities and impact their support for you. The person that supported your fitness and weight loss goals from the start may be struggling to continue supporting you because of their own insecurities of fitness level and weight. They may have a sense of jealousy come over them and cloud their judgment of how to support. At work, the quietness of support from peer co-workers may exist because they realize your success is a threat to their next promotion opportunity. The attention from leadership may feed a jealous story in their mind and the more success you see, the more envy they internally create.
They want you to have success, but not too much success. Not so much success that jealousy starts to trickle in.
Not everyone will follow this envy thought process. But you must realize some will. Another thing you must realize – their feelings of envy are outside of your control. Support externally is uncontrollable, but support internally will always be controllable. The support from others will come and go, the support from within can be a steady stream. One of the most difficult parts of success and striving for something greater are those that will look to slow down this success. Call them haters, envious, jealous, or whatever else you can think of – they’re out there. But when the support and courage within is strong, there’s no negativity that can stop your authentic greatness journey.
“We embrace who we are, and we believe we play the game the right way. We believe that we play with a lot of heart and a lot of passion for the game and then we win football games. If winning football games makes you a villain, we’re gonna keep going out there and doing it.” – Patrick Mahomes
While I may not have passion for either team winning this year’s Super Bowl, I do respect sustained greatness. Just because so many want to see a new narrative in the NFL without the Chiefs on top doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy historical greatness right in front of us. As you can see from the quote above, Mahomes isn’t concerned about the external. The internal dominates the Chiefs’ mindset. Shifting to our growth journey, as we strive for our authentic greatness, we will always have people jumping on and off our bandwagon. Regardless of the external support, it’s up to us to focus on the internal support.
Shout out to the Accelerators out there that bypass their own insecurities and struggle to still support and cheer on the success of those around you.
Take your step: take time to reflect on an area you’re working to develop and grow in. Assess your support structure. Ideally you have many on your bandwagon. Are you relying heavily on this bandwagon or are you working internally to make sure the self-support you’re building can be sustainable? I’m a believer in leveraging your support structure but the challenge will be the support won’t be there in every moment. The support internally will always be there if you invest time to strengthen your belief in what you’re trying to accomplish. There’s a reason why you’re striving for something greater. Stay focused on why you’re striving to build something greater to build your internal support. Regardless how much external support exists, you’re ready for sustainable success.