I’m thinking about failure this morning. It’s one of those looking back topics. But sometimes it’s hard to ignore—not meeting expectations, tasks undone, broken commitments, and the list goes on. In my leadership role at Barclay Press, it’s my own expectations that are the most difficult to achieve.

This morning I failed to bounce out of bed when the alarm went off. A couple of days ago I failed to get to an appointment on time (20 minutes late). My e-mail inbox has a bunch of items I’ve failed to respond to in a timely manner. On the big stuff, self deprecation is an effective defense mechanism. I generally prefer to describe my own shortcoming rather than have to listen to someone else telling me what a screw up I am.