#davesdailychallenge (148): The Search. I recently received some tough feedback. The details of which aren’t important but suffice it to say that I had a really cool opportunity and I blew it. I prepared, rehearsed, and presented my best self when the time was right. Or at least I thought I did. The feedback I received following this event surprised me to say the least. I have lots of things I’ve been criticized over but not what I was being told. In fact, the feedback I received has almost always been in the column of traits that folks would say are one of my strengths. Now that I’ve had some time to think about this I realize that what was being told to me that day was absolutely spot on. I didn’t want to hear it then, and I still don’t like to admit it now, but I screwed up and didn’t know the details of the opportunity well enough to succeed that day. Immediately afterwards, however, I noticed that my mindset had shifted from being laser focused on what I was searching for to questioning all of my previously held assumptions. If you’ve been reading my work for any length of time you already know my thoughts on questioning your assumptions as I think it’s one of the most vital things any person can ever do. As I went through the mental list of all the myriad factors that led me to this point I realized that they were all still true. Absolutely nothing had changed. I made every correct decision right up to the point where I bombed. Why do I tell you all of this? I see a lot of people, especially younger people, pursue goals that they have convinced themselves are what they want. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, when folks inevitably hit road blocks I see these same people question everything and change course drastically to pursue the path of the moment. Making a change can be a great thing in the right situation but having the courage to just take a breath during a time of failure or “learning” and ask yourself what actually went wrong is a powerful practice. Are you truly on the wrong path pursuing the wrong goal or did you just screw up like I did? Could that screw up actually be the sign, and the learning moment, that you need to double down on your original pursuit? It was for me. From my failure, I learned that I was absolutely on the right path. To drastically alter course now would be to sink the ship right before it, hopefully, spots dry land.