I’ll never forget when my beautiful girlfriend Emilia taught me the concept of The Truth Dial. She was trying to help me become a more impactful leader, and she gave me hard feedback I’ll never forget. She said, “Alan, you’ve been conditioned to suppress your truth to protect others from their insecurities, but you can’t lead or help others grow without the courage to express uncomfortable things.”

Today we’re going to talk about success and what it really takes to achieve it. I’m sure you’ve heard motivational quotes about how you have to “Fail forward” or “Fail your way to success,” but I’m not confident it’s ever been properly broken down for you. It’s taken me decades to fully comprehend this concept, and the objective of this article is to help you do the same.

This is a framework I’ve recently started taking my clients through, and it’s been inspiring to see how many are having powerful “Aha” moments. Here’s the problem with traditional goal setting. When people set goals, they’re usually setting them based on outcomes they want rather than the causes that create those outcomes.