1. We discussed the first key to change is being ready.
  2. The second key to change is to ask yourself why.
  3. The third key to change is being realistic.

Have you ever heard the saying “if you have not failed you are not doing anything”. Or one of my favorites is “failure is a key to success”.  Sound familiar?

Accepting you will fail in life is a great lesson. For me failure in my youth taught me to work harder. In my heart I long for the lessons to set me apart.

There are people whom will not agree with me as I say every child does not need a trophy for being on the team. To me there is a bad message we are sending to get a trophy for hanging out.

I have documented it many times what a bad athlete I was in my youth. I was small, not very strong, uncoordinated. I failed at every sport I tried.  I remember in junior high school the city track meet was on my birthday and I cried to my coach to let me run. He told me I had to run faster, I had missed the qualifying time by a few seconds. I never ran in the city meet. I had failed.

I worked harder than most and over the next several years I became a competitive athlete. Had I been allowed to participate there would have been no desire or dive to get better. I did go on to become a quality runner in high school. And it was because of failure.

For me failure is feedback.

Don’t expect your progress to be linear, expect failures along the way. Maybe now you will look back and think of those failures and determine it was feedback. And the feedback is what will drive you to your success.

The fourth key to change is failure and feedback.