Failure can be a wonderful teacher.

Failure is a wonderful teacher, so we are told. However, most people work their entire lives trying to avoid failure, and when they encounter it, they try to move through it as quickly as possible.

"What I have discovered both for myself and my clients is a harsh truth, but also an opportunity. It's not that we don't want to fail, it's that we don't want to be seen as a failure."

I recently learned of Dr. Micahel Gervais' work as a mindfulness coach of some of the elite pro teams such as the Seattle Seahawks... confidence comes from one place and one place only: what you say to yourself.... we talk to ourselves internally at a rate equalling approximately four thousand words per minute...I remember coaching a leader who was determined to secure a C-Suite position. He was determined to have this role... We uncovered that he had equated the role as a proxy for his feeling of worth and value.

What's the "talk track" that you are telling yourself over and over again?

Excerpt from Chapter 8 of The Present Executive