Next Play Mentality: How To Stop Replaying Your Past Mistakes

One of the things I love about volunteering with Making the Leap is that I always leave feeling inspired by the young people I meet.

Making the Leap is a brilliant social mobility charity that helps less advantaged young people develop skills, gain experiences and access opportunities that help shape their futures, while connecting them with organisations committed to improving social mobility.

I have been fortunate to support them for the past six years, and one of the things I particularly enjoy is seeing the ambition and drive of the young people coming through their programmes.

During a recent mock interview day for Year 12 students at The City of London Academy Southwark, I spoke to students who were already running businesses, building AI tools and pursuing professional basketball careers alongside their studies.

One question I found myself asking throughout the day was: "How do you deal with setbacks?"

I expected answers about resilience or perseverance, but instead several of the basketball players all used the same phrase:

Next play mentality.

One student, who is a point guard and one of the team's leaders, also described his role as being the emotional thermostat for the team.

They spoke about how they deal with their own mistakes or errors on the court by acknowledging them, learning from them, and then shifting their attention immediately to the next play.

One student said: "If I am still replaying the last mistake, I am no longer present for what's happening now."

Mic drop.

And, of course, I'm sharing this because it's not just a basketball mindset. It's a self-leadership mindset.

We all have moments we would rather replay differently.

The meeting that didn't go well.

The difficult conversation we wish we had handled better.

The presentation that fell flat.

The decision we keep second-guessing.

Our attention is one of our most valuable resources. Every minute spent replaying the last play is attention we can't give to the next one.

So what is your "next play"?

I've been reflecting on a few questions that I think are useful when we find ourselves stuck replaying something that has already happened:

• What "last play" am I still replaying?

• What would change if I chose to learn from it, then let it go?

• Where does my attention need to be instead?

  
  

This doesn't mean ignoring what happened or pretending that mistakes don't matter.

Sometimes we need to sit with something, understand what happened and take responsibility for our part in it. But there is a difference between learning from the last play and continuing to live in it.

At some point, we have to turn our attention back towards what's happening now.

And that, to me, is a big part of self-leadership. It's not about always getting things right. It's about being able to notice what is happening within us, learn from our experiences and make a conscious choice about how we want to respond to what comes next.