I was obsessed with basketball in high school, and one of the varsity players gave me an unforgettable piece of advice.

I wanted to be the best and compete at the highest level in our team, but I had been running myself ragged, trying to improve. But, like most beginners, I was making many mistakes: not practicing at game speed, not focusing enough on conditioning, and not focusing on the mental aspect of the game.

Until one day, this basketball player I looked up to said to me:

"Don't leave anything on the table and allow someone to say you had potential."

That day, my whole life changed.

From that day on, I internalized what he said and realized that we all have potential, given our genetics, when we started training, and our environment.

The only way to reach our full potential is to push ourselves and put ourselves in uncomfortable situations where we will likely fail and learn from this failure.

Even though I recognized this as a high schooler, it was hard to put it into practice and properly reframe failure and the fear of what others would think about me if this were to occur.

It wasn't until recently that I realized that failure should be welcomed. If you aren't failing, you aren't taking big enough swings and living to your full potential.

So, ask yourself: “Where could I be taking more risks and seeking failure to learn from?"