I often think about this quote by Confucius “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

As I look back on my life I recall instances that I was not at my personal best. First tendency is to deny, then perhaps to blame others or the circumstances or to ignore and put it out of mind; however, if I am willing to be honest and objective about the events and I get past the ego and stop being emotional, then I find myself at my personal best again as I turn the experience into a learning opportunity and move forward.

The word failure doesn’t exist in my vocabulary so long as we learn a lesson to put to use in the future we are winners. The trick is managing emotions and ego and learning how to learn and stop being reactive. There is a formula in achieving this state of mind and a very simple process to follow. The question is: Do we have the formula and if not, are we looking in the right places?

Shohreh Rostami