For those of following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, you may be in the same position as me. Which is disappointed. After lots of build-up the first match took place and it didn’t turn out as expected. There are lots of us in the same boat as the dreams of players, coaches and fans were snatched from them by the better teams.

For England, there were two things that went wrong as early as their opening match. The first point was of course the result itself. 1-1 in game they were expected to win. For England to progress to the knock-out stages they needed to now start winning matches and if they wanted to win their group they really had to start scoring goals. With those requirements came additional pressures.

The second point is that the England goalkeeper, Rob Green, made a howler of a mistake that could haunt him forever if he allows it to. A mundane shot requiring the sort of save he would normally make with his eyes close ended up in the net after he failed to simply get his hands behind the ball. An error a schoolboy would be disappointed with. To make matters worse, his error was watching by millions of people across the globe.

The disappointment for me was that Rob Green didn’t get a chance to make amends for his mistake. I’m sure he was champing at the bit to get back on the pitch ( at least I hope he was). He didn’t get to play another match, so we have to hope that he accepts that none of us can change what has gone before.

So, what did England do in response to these early set-backs? What did they learn to enable them to improve and pick up their performance? We’ll never know how good they could have been because they did the opposite of what we all expected them to do. We expected the team to come out fighting and to show its mettle. However they didn’t. They went in to their shells and played like poor imitations of the players we know them to be.

I suspect there will be many for whom this will be their last World Cup. What a shame that they didn’t grasp the nettle of opportunity and assert their collective brilliance.

For the rest of us, as we get on with the important stuff of every day life and business, we should remember that what is done it done. We are where we are. How we choose to go forward is what counts.

Once again, it’s how we execute which is so vitally important. Review yesterday, plan for tomorrow, make it happen today.

Thanks for stopping by and if I can help you with anything in your business or career, please get in touch.