I Love to Win.
I think Most People Do.
It is a part of Why we Love to Follow Success.
Successful People.
Successful Businesses.
Successful Products.
In many ways, we almost fall into this form of worship around the Idea of Success.
We Chase It.
We Desire It.
We Crave It.
Many people seem to be willing to do nearly anything to Obtain Success.
Often We Pursue Success to a Fault.
Yet, there is Something Very Interesting About Success...
We Seek It...
Yet it Rarely Provides Value to Our Growth.
It may be a "Mark" for us to Utilize, but it Rings Hollow.
Now, I've had a Fair Share of "Success" over the Years.
But I can Tell You that Rarely Do I Grow from the Success.
So, where is our Greatest Growth Opportunity then?
Let me tell you about something that just happened today...
I Publish Articles on a Few Different Platforms.
On one of those platforms, there was a Competition.
The Idea was to Write a Possible Future in the year 2050.
So, I thought about this and how I could Write something Relevant to Leadership, Sageship, and Psychophysiology.
It is called, "The Lessons Of World War III And How They Created Peace - An Imagined History For The Year 2050".
My Goal in Writing it was to Think of a Catastrophized Future, based on Real Events that I have been Seeing in the World, and then Laying Out a Way to Escape that Future.
It was really Time-Consuming, and I put a lot of Effort into it.
I was Extremely Happy with the End Product and Felt it was a Great Piece.
I also received some Feedback About it that gave me Hope:
"This story was a wild ride, blending future history with some deep thoughts on fear, trust, and how humanity found peace after all the chaos. It's like a mix of big global events and personal realizations about how overcoming fear and helping each other can turn everything around. Definitely an eye-opener!"
"This was a totally disturbing piece for me to read, because it is highly possible with the world's events that have already taken place. I think they should be worried about other things instead of renaming the Gulf of Mexico. I was handicapped by an unnecessary surgery in 2020, so you might be on to something with this article. Nice Job.- Well Done!!"
So, I felt Very Confident about the Challenge.
There was a lot of Amazing Competition, and there were many Talented Writers I was Against.
But I felt like I would Do Great.
Well, the Results came in...
I Did Not Win.
I Did Not Take Second.
I Did Not Even get an Honorable Mention.
I Failed.
Completely.
Here's where the Growth Opportunity Comes...
What do you Do in Failure?
Guess what?
We All Fail.
Some of us (Raising My Hand) More Often than Others.
It's a Part of Life.
You can be Amazing at what You Do.
You could be the Absolute Best.
You'll Still Fail.
Will you Sit and Cry about it?
Will you Call Out that it's Unfair?
That you're Misunderstood?
Some of these may be True in your Situation.
There will be times when a Loss is Undeserved.
But allowing the Loss to Destroy You ends up Blocking You from the Growth Opportunity.
You can Instead Embrace the Loss.
It happened, Yes.
It may Fill You with Humility.
It may Stab You with your Weaknesses.
Twisting the Pain.
Yet, it is in Embracing these that We Learn.
We Discover What We're Capable Of.
We Find New Opportunities that Allow Us to Become Better.
The Greatest Opportunity for Growth Will Never Exist in Success.
No matter how "Good" Success Feels.
All of the Potential for Growth Exists in the Failures, and How We Overcome Those Failures.
Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?
Tired of Broken Algorithms and AI Slop?
Excited to Dive Deeper into Psychophysiological Mastery?
Want to Change The World?