Sleepwalking is dangerous. One moment you’re lying in bed and the next you’re falling down the stairs, or strolling down the middle of a road, oblivious to traffic coming at you.
Sleepwalking professionally is just as dangerous. Yet many high performers – and high-performing teams – are guilty of doing it for stretches of time.
Sustaining excellence over the long term is difficult. When you’re at the top of your game, year in, year out, it’s hard to keep your focus and maintain the energy needed to fight off contenders and to stay the best. It’s human nature to get distracted, tired, and lose the attention to detail that helped you climb the mountain.
Just ask the Golden State Warriors.
After making the NBA Finals three years in a row, winning two titles, securing the best record in a regular season (73 wins, amazing!), and in the playoffs (16-1 in the 7-7-7-7 system), during the 2017-18 season the Warriors looked, well, tired. Tired and bored – all the way up to their final game of the regular season, losing to the Utah Jazz by 40 points.