It's our Super Bowl, our Olympics; don’t waste the opportunity

On this Super Bowl Sunday, set against the backdrop of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, let’s look at the focus required to achieve top results during the benchmark events of our lives.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves calling big life events "our Super Bowl" or saying, "it’s like our Olympics."

This applies to athletes, like basketball star Kyle Lowry describing his team’s mentality ahead of a critical Game 7 in the 2016 NBA Playoffs:

"It’s like our Super Bowl," said Lowry—an Olympic gold medalist himself. "Win or go home. It’s one game. Survive or don’t survive. That’s the mentality we have to have."

On that day, it worked. Lowry’s Raptors took down the Indiana Pacers to advance. While they eventually fell to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, that "Super Bowl" focus was what got them to that point and would eventually lead to Lowry’s team winning the championship a few years later.

The comparison applies to higher callings as well. After witnessing the introduction of Pope Leo XIV in Rome last year, Father Michael Kilmartin of Meath noted: "It is like our Olympics, with all the people from around the world and all the flags and cheering. There is so much colour and excitement, it was very moving."

On this Feb. 8, 2026, the biggest of sports moments collide. We have the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics and Super Bowl XL—one an event of worldwide importance, the other arguably the most significant annual event in the United States—happening simultaneously. It’s the perfect moment to look up from the TV and dig into the idea of staying focused when it matters most.

Football and cross country skiing collide.

In a post for Monster.com, Ian Christie highlights "key career moments" that shape a professional path. "Think about the collective impact of these career moments," Christie writes. "They determine how you'll be spending the coming weeks, months, and years and leave a lasting mark on your resume—and your life. Why waste them?"

That’s the vital question: "Why waste them?"

We have to recognize when our "Super Bowl moments" arrive and seize them like an Olympian seeking the gold. For you, it might be running an annual school auction, clearing snow after a blizzard, setting up a booth at a major conference, or planning a wedding. These are your "Olympics." You don’t want to ruin the moment by getting distracted.

Christie offers three pieces of advice to help limit distractions and focus on the goal:

• Know When to Overprepare

• Learn to Ask

• Learn to Say No

Here is my take for those aspiring for greatness:

• Overpreparation: You have to put in the work to expect championship results.

• Asking: You need to have the humility to know what you don’t know.

• The power of "no": Being honest about your bandwidth is far more effective than a people-pleasing "yes" that leads to a distracted performance.

You’ll never hear a Super Bowl champion or Olympic medalist say they felt underprepared or reference the sacrifices they made to get coached up to that moment of glory. You can see the focus in a champion’s eyes before they even start.

OK, enough about what it takes to be great. Back to the chips and dip and some incredible sports action. I pick the Seahawks winning easily over the Patriots.