Decide what a good season looks like before it starts, so one loss can’t redefine it.

Without a definition agreed in advance, the most recent result becomes the verdict. Lose badly in week three and the whole year gets reclassified as a failure, which is nonsense arithmetic and extremely convincing on the drive home. Deciding beforehand what progress looks like gives you something to measure against other than the last scoreboard. Standards set in the calm survive bad afternoons.

Write down two or three things that would make the next season, term or project a good one. Keep them about improvement rather than placings. Read them after a defeat.