Choosing How to Use Failure (8-19-26)

Last week was about failure, perspective, and avoiding downward spirals. We are going to build on that by reflecting on how we choose to use failure.

I lifted weights this past weekend. I had a goal number of reps I was trying to hit for each exercise. Things were going great, until they weren’t. Suddenly, I couldn’t hit my rep goals anymore, and I fell short on my last few exercises. At this point, I had failed, and I could use this failure in two different ways. I could take this failure and use it as conclusive proof that I was a weak sauce loser. The other option would be to use the failure as fuel, admit I had missed today, and come back ready to triumph. I chose the latter. As I left the workout, I was proud of everything I had accomplished AND fired up to push myself harder.

Let’s make some connections to work. No one is perfect. If you are setting a high bar for yourself then falling short is inevitable. I’ve shared before that my high bar for my role is to deliver magic, to crush all my goals and make it look effortless. There are some places where I’ve delivered this level of magic. There are others where I’ve fallen short of my goals. In those shortcomings I can see how I could have done things differently or better. I could use these failures and shortcomings in two different ways. I could use these as evidence that I’m a horrible at my job and should give up. (I’ve been down that rabbit hole. Have you? It’s not fun.) I can also use these failures and shortcomings as learnings and as motivation to do things differently and do better.

Now take a moment to think about your work. The last time you made a mistake, did you allow it to eat you alive, or did you use it as fuel? No matter who you are failure is inevitable. How we choose to use that failure is up to each of us.

The challenge: How will you choose to use failure?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Obstacle Course Racing and Avoiding Injury

Happy Monday,

I have a bonus blog for you about obstacle course racing and avoiding injury.

Whenever I do a race, I have 3 goals: don’t get injured, enjoy myself, and finish. My safety and health always come first because not only do I want to be able to do more races, but I have a life outside of racing where I want to be a great husband, dad, and friend. When I began my race on Saturday, I started off running. Very quickly, I felt the pain in my leg, giving me a signal that something wasn’t quite right. I have a history of stress fractures and knew this could lead to an injury. At this point, I had a choice. I could keep running and risk injury or I could slow down and walk. The young and less wise Andrew would have kept running and likely hurt himself. I decided to slow down and walk. While I might have been slower than I had hoped, I enjoyed the trails, had fun tackling the obstacles, and overall had a great time. Best of all, my leg (and the rest of me) feels pretty good today!

What does this have to do with work? I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen and heard of a lot of people running themselves into the ground at work. It’s like they are running with leg pain and keep running until the bone eventually snaps. Have you seen this? Have you experienced this? I know I have.

In the story this week, I mention how there is more to my life than just races, which is why my health and safety is so important. In a similar way, while work is important, it’s not the only thing in our lives. We are more than just employees. When we push past exhaustion at work, not only are we less effective at work, but we’re not the spouse, partner, parent, friend, etc. that we’d like to be. At least that’s what I’ve found from first-hand experience.

The Challenge: How can we pay attention to the pain signals and adjust accordingly before we get injured?

The Leader Challenge: How are you creating an environment that protects people from being ran into the ground?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Parenting Lessons- “Have a day you can be proud of.” (6-12-24)

This week we will kick off a series about lessons I’ve learned being a parent. This entry contains some deep wisdom from Alice (12) about having a day you can be proud of.

A couple of months ago I was getting ready to leave for the office and I told the kids, “Have a good day!” Alice responded with, “Have a day you can be proud of.” I paused for a minute and said, “That’s different. Never heard that one before.” Alice then started dropping knowledge. She explained that a lot of things could happen that might make the day good or bad, but I could choose how to handle those things and how I handled them could make me proud of myself. Since then, “Have a day you can be proud of,” has become Alice’s parting phrase, and it’s stuck with me ever since.

What does this have to do with anything? At its core, Alice’s insight is that we can CHOOSE how to respond to things and that makes all the difference. The day might end up being good or the day might end up being bad. However, you have the POWER to ensure it’s a day you feel proud of. It might rain all day, and you can choose to dance in that rain instead of grumbling. You might get blindsided by challenges, and you can choose to lean into the situation instead of running away. You might get knocked down, and you can choose to get back up instead of surrendering. There is so much power in how you choose to respond.

The challenge: What will you do to ensure you have a day you can be proud of?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Choosing Your Discomfort (1-17-24)

This week I’d like to kick off a series exploring comfort and discomfort. We will start by exploring working out and choosing your discomfort.

There are some people who feel great as they workout and love doing it. I am NOT one of those people. I’m quite the opposite. Whenever I exercise my body screams at me about how miserable and stupid all of this stuff is and pleads with me to just go sit on the couch. While exercising causes discomfort, I’ve found that if I consistently go through the discomfort of working out, then I feel more comfortable in my body on any given day. On the flip side, if I embrace the comfort of just hanging out on the couch too often, I begin to feel uncomfortable in my body. It’s achy, sore, tired, etc. It’s weird that sometimes my body can feel worse from not doing anything vs pushing itself. Anyone else experience that? As a result of all of this, even though I don’t particularly like exercising, I choose the discomfort of working out, so I can have the comfort of being in my body.

Where is this going? I can’t remember who said it, but I once heard someone say something like, “Either way you’re going to experience discomfort. You get to decide what discomfort you experience and when.” While this sentiment applies to me and working out, it often applies to work situations as well. Last week I was in a kickoff call, and we were discussing milestone maps and timelines. It became apparent to me that the rough draft just wasn’t working. At that point I had a decision. I could choose comfort and not say anything, or I could choose discomfort and encourage us to dive into the issues which would likely bring some tension. I chose discomfort. I said to the team, “These kickoff meetings are always messy. I want you all to know that not only am I okay with that, but I expect that to happen. We need to dive deeper into these milestone maps, because it’s not quite where it needs to be. Before we go any further, I just want to reiterate that I’d rather have these uncomfortable conversations about how we need to fix our plan now early in the year vs avoiding the conversation and scrambling at the end of the year when we missed things because we didn’t plan for them.” With the stage set, we all chose discomfort. We began challenging, pushing, and demanding more from ourselves. We had real talk about how certain parts weren’t well defined and how the sequencing was off. There was a healthy amount of tension, and no one felt carefree, cozy, and comfy during the conversation. Afterwards, we were all thankful we chose discomfort because we could see how choosing discomfort now will make life easier down the road.

Is the above situation familiar to you? Maybe your situation isn’t about milestone maps. Maybe your situation is about giving tough feedback. Maybe your situation is about making a tough prioritization decision. Maybe your situation is making a market research recommendation that won’t exactly be embraced with open arms (Nothing like telling a VP that the data isn’t as meaningful as they had hoped 😉). Whatever your situation you have a choice. You can choose to go through some relatively short-term discomfort that can set you up for more sustained comfort or you can choose short-term comfort which will likely make you consistently uncomfortable in the long-term. The choice is yours.

The challenge: What discomfort will you choose?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry