For the first 30 years of my life, perfection was the standard.

As a goaltender, giving up more than two goals felt like failure. As a student, A's or nothing. At university, the Dean's List became the expectation.

On the surface, that sounds like ambition.

In reality, it was perfectionism disguised as discipline.

The problem with perfection is that it teaches you to judge yourself almost entirely by outcomes. And when life eventually becomes bigger than what you can control — as it always does — you're not prepared.

I spent more time looking for explanations than lessons.

This week Curtis Scaplen writes about what shifted, why failure is the price of admission for a meaningful life, and what it actually means to adopt a next-play mentality.

I've been keeping a record since 2011 that I never planned to share.

Every flight. Every destination. Every mile.

750,000 of them across five phases of a career that took me from Switzerland to Indonesia to the western provinces of Canada.

Looking back at that logbook now, I didn't just see destinations. I saw lessons.

New post is live.

My first car was a green Dodge Colt. Stick shift. No A/C. Rush hour traffic in the summer heat.

It was miserable. And it taught me more about leadership than most courses I've ever taken.

New post is live on the blog. Link in bio.