That’s exactly what I’m going to tell you about today—why being kicked in the behind can be a significant benefit for your productivity and focus.

There is a very long list of things I know virtually nothing about—home improvement, car maintenance, higher math, oh, it could go on and on—but in a few specific areas, I’ve earned some decent qualifications over the years. The funny thing I realized while thinking about this is that with each of the areas of relative skill, the process of learning has usually been somewhat painful.

Consider this quote from Teddy Roosevelt:

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”