Many people in life don’t want to think about their past because many times people think about the pain associated with it. The reality is that everyone’s past has allowed us to become who we are today, whether for better or worse. Things in the past happened for a reason, whether we want to believe it or not, and we should all have taken things from the past and learned from all of them.

For example, if you have had situations in life where you could have failed at something, I am sure that you not only remember the pain of that failure, but have thought about the things you could have done to avoid failing. During my Air Force career, I partied hard and had not a care in the world for anything but myself and the joys of life I was experiencing at the time.

I knew I was in for a big test to show the Air Force how much I knew about my job to advance to the next level, but I kept putting it off so I could party with my friends. What I didn’t realize was that my friends had already completed their tests and everyone was ready to go. When the day came to take my test, I missed it by 1 point and I was devastated.

I had no one to blame but myself for my failure, but my mind wanted me to believe that the system screwed me. After two days of thinking about the mistakes I made, I wanted to make things right so I could stay in the Air Force, so I made it a point to let my friends know that I wasn’t going to be partying for a while and that I would. focus on my Air Force tests.

The day I told them their answer was “Brother, we thought you already tried like us” and my answer was “Yes, I did the test and I failed by one point”. The entire room fell silent. Soon after, my friends said to me, “Man, we’re sorry because we should have taken care of you a little better, but we’ll make sure to leave you alone for a few weeks so you can study.”

Two weeks passed and I was ready for the test. I woke up that morning and went to the testing center to take the test and I was so nervous and my palms were sweaty but I knew I could do it. The test facilitator brought me my test and I dove in. I was done in about 20 minutes because I knew all the answers and found out I passed and actually blew it out of the water.

Of course, this was not my only failure in life, but it was one of the most significant. I didn’t like how I felt when I got my first test results, so I had to make positive changes in my life, and that’s what I did. Now, because of that situation that happened to me, I never put things ahead of my number one priority, which is to excel at what I’m supposed to do to provide for my family.

I encourage you to make positive changes in your life so that you don’t have to go through some of the same things that I did. I also encourage you to prioritize your responsibilities in life and make sure you have them on the list. the proper order. You have to establish your own personal importance list because no one can tell you what is more important to you than you.