Super Bowl 53 MVPs' 4 Mindsets Key to Success
The morning after the Superbowl, MVP Julian Edelman didn’t sleep, instead he jumped on a 7:30 am interview with CNN’s resident Pats fan, John Berman. Edelman looked rough AND he made a heck of a lot of sense. Before you attribute the Patriots’ success to cheating, to spending insane money, or even to the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady, consider that the mindsets Edelman shared with clarity from his sleep-deprived fog are essential to his, the team’s, and anyone’s success. These habits of the mind can be summed in 4 simple practices of thought.
1. Says who? (Ignore Negativity)
Berman asked Edelman his response to people who have said he’s too short or too slow. The answer? “I'm not really worried about what people think with negative energy and negative thoughts. I'll put my thoughts and my brain behind going on and just trying to improve each day.” Notice that even as the SUPERBOWL MVP, Edelman doesn’t fuel negativity by talking about how he’s proved his detractors wrong. Not one microvolt of energy flows towards negativity.
2. Do your job! (Focus & Grind)
This is a Belichick tenet. Focus on the job you need to do. Like a lot of great practices in life, it sounds so simple, but in today’s media-saturated, overstimulated world, it’s hard to do. Edelman describes it as, “hitting that hammer, hitting that nail.” In other words, know your current priority and do it, excluding thoughts of all other things. When that task is done, move onto the next thing. It’s an old school way of working, and guess what, it works!
3. Have a short memory. (Move Past Mistakes)
Despite being an unapologetic Pats fan, Berman asked Edelman about his suspension for using performance enhancing drugs and what he learned from that. Again, Edelman emphasized the importance of avoiding negativity, even when you’ve made mistakes, “…you have to have a short memory because you could dig into a deep hole if you go the other way….” For his first pass of the Super Bowl, Brady threw an interception, and the team didn’t let that derail them. Just like worrying about what someone else is saying or doing, focusing on past mistakes is another distraction that can pull us away from succeeding right now, today.
4. Don’t hate—Collaborate!
Edelman summed up an attitude core to his team’s success with this catch phrase. After the game, Brady made a point to embrace several of the Rams and call out their accomplishments. If you listened to post-game interviews, you heard that this the Pats/Belichick way: no one succeeds alone and acknowledging your competition’s accomplishments is part of a positive mindset. The same is true for everyone—our colleagues within our organizations and across our industries are essential to each of us succeeding. Celebrate others’ wins and find ways to work together towards success.