The Confidence Formula: How Athletes Bounce Back After a Loss

Picture this. The crowd is roaring. The scoreboard flashes red. The final buzzer sounds, and your team is down by three. Defeat stings. For athletes, it’s not just about the loss—it’s about what happens next.

The best athletes don’t stay stuck in that moment. They don’t replay the fumble or the missed shot over and over. Instead, they master what’s called the “next play mentality.”

It’s a formula for confidence and resilience that leaders in business can use too. Because CEOs, executives, and high achievers? You face your own scoreboard moments every single day—failed deals, rejected pitches, or bold ideas that flop.

So, let’s break down this confidence formula and see how you can bounce back faster and stronger, just like the pros.

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Watch the video or listen to the podcast episode here:

Step 1: Failure Isn’t Final

Athletes know something powerful: losing is part of the game.

Michael Jordan famously said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games… I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Failure isn’t a reflection of your worth—it’s data. It’s feedback. It’s the raw material for future success.

In business, rejection or failure often feels personal. Maybe your big pitch to the board got shut down. Maybe a client walked away. But here’s the truth: it’s not final. It’s just part of the process.

Think of failure as a coach showing you film after the game. “See this? Here’s what to do differently next time.”

Step 2: Build Your Confidence Muscle

Athletes train daily. They don’t wait until game day to practice their shots or sprints.

Confidence works the same way—it’s a muscle you build, not a trait you’re born with. Every time you get back up after a fall, you strengthen that muscle.

In business, this means:

Taking the next meeting after a rejection.
Pitching again, even after a “no.”
Trying a new strategy, even when the last one tanked.

The repetition matters more than the result. Over time, your nervous system learns: I can recover. I can handle this.

Confidence comes from experience, not perfection.

Step 3: Adopt the “Next Play” Mentality

Here’s the game-changer.

Legendary basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) tells his players: “Next play.”

It means: don’t dwell. Don’t sulk. Don’t ride the emotional rollercoaster. The only thing that matters is the next play.

Athletes who live by this mantra don’t freeze after a mistake. They immediately shift focus forward.

In the boardroom, the “next play” mentality looks like this:

Instead of replaying the lost contract in your head, you move on to the next opportunity.
Instead of obsessing over criticism, you use it as fuel to refine your strategy.
Instead of questioning your abilities, you ask: “What’s my next step?”

Step 4: Redefine Success

Athletes don’t define themselves by one game. Their identity is built over seasons.

As a leader, you need to zoom out too. Success isn’t one deal, one quarter, or even one year. It’s the sum of your resilience, your ability to keep showing up, and your willingness to learn along the way.

One loss doesn’t define your legacy. But how you respond to that loss? That does.

Step 5: Write Your Comeback Story

Here’s where it gets exciting.

Every setback is an invitation to write a comeback story. Athletes thrive on this—comebacks fuel some of the greatest moments in sports history.

The same applies to business. A failed launch could be the spark that leads to your next innovation. A rejection could be the nudge that sharpens your pitch for a bigger win.

Your setback is setting the stage for your comeback—if you let it.

Bringing It All Together: The Confidence Formula

Failure isn’t final. It’s feedback.
Confidence is a muscle. Build it daily.
Adopt the next play mentality. Don’t dwell—move forward.
Redefine success. Look at the long game.
Write your comeback story. Every loss is fuel for the next win.

When you put this formula into practice, you create resilience that lasts. You stop fearing rejection and start using it. You stop getting stuck in the past and start building the future.

And here’s the best part: your team sees it too. Just like a player who lifts their teammates by staying confident under pressure, your response to failure sets the tone for everyone around you.

Final Thought

Confidence doesn’t come from always winning. It comes from knowing you can lose, recover, and still play at your best.

Athletes know it. CEOs can live it.

So the next time rejection or failure knocks you down, remember: next play.

That’s the confidence formula.

Book a Quick Win with Kathie

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About Kathie

Kathie Owen is a corporate wellness consultant, mindset coach, and speaker with over 25 years of experience in fitness, wellness, and leadership.

After navigating burnout in a toxic workplace, she transformed her pain into purpose—helping CEOs and high achievers bounce back stronger, lead with confidence, and build thriving teams.

Through coaching, challenges, and her signature programs, Kathie empowers leaders to recover from setbacks, reduce stress, and create workplaces where people love to show up.

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Transcript

Have you ever had a loss that just stuck with you? Maybe you missed the shot, lost the deal, or heard a big fat No when you were counting on a yes. It stings right. But here's the thing. Athletes lose all the time, and yet they bounce back. They don't just survive the loss. They use it to fuel their next win. Today, I'm gonna share the confidence formula athletes use to recover fast and how you as a CEO or high achiever can use it too. You're listening to Kathie's Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Kathie Owen. Let's start on the court. Picture this, the buzzer goes off. The scoreboard shows your team down by three, and the loss hits hard. What happens next? Some players hang their heads, others slam the ball down, but the greats, they reset. They get ready for the very next play. That's the difference and that's the formula I wanna give you today. Failure isn't final. Michael Jordan once said I failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed. Athletes don't see failure as the end. They see it as feedback. Film review coaching a roadmap to what's next In business, you'll face rejection. Maybe it's a pitch that flops or a deal that falls through, but that doesn't define you. It's just data. It's just one play. Ask yourself, what can I learn here? How do I use it for my next move? Confidence is a muscle. Confidence doesn't just show up on game day. Athletes build it in practice day after day, rep after rep. It's the same in leadership. Confidence grows when you keep showing up, when you take the next meeting after a rejection, when you try again after falling short. Every rep tells your nervous system, I can handle this. Confidence is not perfection. It is resilience. You know, right now my favorite baseball team has been on a huge losing streak. I saw this coming and you know, baseball isn't a sport, uh, called. Win all the time. But how do these athletes handle losing? And you might enjoy my story about my favorite athlete of all time, Jose Altuve, who gets booed and actually does better when he's booing. You know, I love sports psychology because it's something you can really study and analyze and utilize in your own life, for example. I talked about how Jose Altuve does that booing, and I related that to the booing that goes on inside our heads and how we can still face life and challenges with confidence just like a professional athlete. The next play mentality is what I want to talk about. This is the game changer, legendary Coach Mike Krasinski. Coach K drilled this into his players next play. It means don't dwell, don't sulk, and don't let a mistake own you. In the boardroom, this might look like, instead of replaying that lost contract in your head, you immediately shift to the next opportunity. Instead of getting paralyzed by criticism, you refine your strategy and keep going. The only thing that matters is the next play. So let's redefine success. An athlete's career isn't defined by one game. It's defined by the season, by the legacy. As leaders, we've got to zoom out one setback, one quarter, one failed launch. That's not your whole story. Success is the long game and every setback is part of the season that shapes you. So I want you to write your comeback story. Here's where it gets fun. Every setback is the setup for a comeback. Think about the greatest sports moment you've ever seen. Aren't they comebacks down to the wire against all odds, rallying back stronger? In business you can create that too. A failed idea can spark your best innovation. A rejection can refine you into the leader who closes the next big deal. Your setback is the training ground for your comeback story. So let's bring it together. The confidence formula is simple. Number one, failure is not final. It's just feedback. Number two, confidence is a muscle. You build it daily. Number three, live with the next play mentality. Number four, redefine success. It's about the long game it. Number five, write your comeback story. So confidence doesn't come from always winning. It comes from knowing you can lose, recover, and still play at your best. Athletes know it, and you as a CEO or high achiever can live it. So the next time rejection knocks you down, remember next play. That's the confidence formula. So this is something that I coach in general. I use sports psychology in all of my coaching. Whether you relate to sports or not, it still works really well. And it's funny because I was working with a client the other day and they're just telling me stories and they kept telling me, Kathie, I don't know why. I'm just telling story after story after story. I feel like I'm boring you. And I said, no. This is where the magic happens. That's the practice that's building that confidence muscle that we're talking about today. And if this sounds like something you are interested in, because it works like magic, just talk your story and then redefine what's going on and look at it as feedback. This is exactly what I do in my coaching as well as with my team coaching too. There will be links to all of that in the show notes and description below, as well as a blog post that goes along with this episode. And you can find more bonus resources in there as well in that blog post. So if this message spoke to you, share it with someone on your team who could use a little comeback energy today. All right, that's my episode for today. I trust that you found it helpful, and if you know someone who can benefit from it, please share it with them. And until next time, I'll see you next time. Peace out and namaste.

Confidence Under Pressure

The Confidence Formula: How Athletes Bounce Back After a Loss

Overwhelmed? Book a call with Kathie

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