On what was one of my last tournament water polo games, one person in particular made a mistake that cost us the game. It wasn’t an important game, probably for 7th or 8th or something, but this one act cast a pretty deep shadow on our tournament as a whole.

But it really shouldn’t have. We should have been good enough that any such situation was avoided in the first place. We should have covered our bases and made sure that small mistakes like these aren’t enough to cost us the game.

It’s amazing how such small mistakes can have such profound implications. The implications are so profound, often it is easy to blame the person that made the mistake. But if it’s a team effort, it’s a team mistake.

Likewise, when you make a mistake that can cost you dearly, that mistake is more of a symbol than the deciding factor. As such, you shouldn’t focus too much on the smaller mistakes, but think of how you can make it so even if these mistakes happen, you still come out on top.

If you treat these mistakes as casting a shadow on your tournament, that negative energy carries on into the future, which helps no one. These mistakes give you the chance to learn what can go wrong, and they give you the chance to address them in future, so really they are a blessing in disguise.