The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to be the first back-to-back Super Bowl champion since 2004-2005 when the New England Patriots won back-to-back championships. With all the incredible teams and athletes year in and year out, why has there not been a back-to-back champion in almost 2 decades?

32 teams start each year with a chance of holding that trophy (some teams like my Bears have much smaller chances unfortunately). Each year we’ll have very similar story lines. Some teams have significant injuries and can’t recover. Others will be destroyed by salary cap issues and must turn over some key parts of their roster. A select few teams will overachieve while others will severely underachieve. There’s parody week after week.

If you look at the past 2 decades of AFC and NFC championship games, you’ll notice there have been 12 different teams that have made the AFC championship game and 14 different NFC teams. While there may be outliers like the New England Patriots, for the most part, there is constant turnover in who’s battling to reach the Super Bowl.

Each year is a rollercoaster ride waiting to see what turn or drop happens next. It’s no wonder there’s a lack of consistency when it comes to who the champion is.

There is a theme to take away from this. While the winning part doesn’t always work out the way it may be expected, always show up and compete to give yourself a chance.

I’m guilty at times of being outcome focused. It’s binary – win or lose. Where the real focus needs to be is simply asking the question, how did you show up to compete today? There will always be uncontrollable faced whether it’s at work, taking care of your family, helping your community, etc. The rollercoaster ride you’ll face in various aspects of life will always create uncontrollable situations but there can be one thing you can always rely on – how you show up to compete.

One of my favorite coaches to listen to and learn from is Pete Carroll. I love this quote from Pete – “Stay hungry, remain humble, and get better today.” Really simple approach that creates an opportunity each day to show up and compete to get better than the previous day. Each day may not give you the outcome you desired but I guarantee, if you continue to show up and compete at your best, wins in a variety of ways will start to pile on top of each other.

Take your step: focus on 1-2 areas of your life (career, relationships, health/wellness, etc.). Take a couple minutes to reflect on whether your viewpoint is more binary (win/lose) or if your perspective is focused more on how you show up to compete. As you reflect on these 1-2 areas of life, challenge yourself to shift focus to your behaviors on how you choose to show up each day. Instead of solely focusing on what it will take to achieve a win, also bring in the perspective of how you can show up to compete better each day. What habits and behaviors will allow you to up your game competing each day? Take hold of a couple of these habits you identified to start instilling opportunities to show up and compete more effectively each day.