Embrace failure.

One topic that often pops up concerns success and failure... how to get one, and how to stay away from the other.

I sometimes get the feeling that a lot of people are not reaching their potential and could go further. Most want to, but they shackle themselves with doubt. Others give it a shot, but overshoot. A few combine skill and experience and hit the mark.

My suggestion is to stop being paranoid about failure and accept it as a risk in the line of duty. Missing the target will help you understand how to aim.

Failure is a integral part of the learning process.

Unless you take risks and explore, unless you step over the edge, you will never know if you can fly or not. And if you never try it... one day you might stumble over the edge... go limp and drop like a stone... when maybe, you actually could have flown to safety.

Taking risks will teach you three things:

• that failure is not defeat
• that many small bumps are more educational than a huge hit
• what your true capacity is

Getting to know what your capacity is, may be the most important one. The old saying is of course true "We learn from our mistakes". It takes time, but once you understand what your capacity is, you will be doing more of the right things and pushing to the max on a competence level where it pays off.