When dressing for the cold, it’s not the ambient temperature that gets you — it’s the wind. When making projections on your company’s growth (or simply your personal income), it’s not your monthly nut that gets you — it’s needing a new transmission.

When we go into situations looking to be reassured by the best-case scenario, we undermine the very perspective needed to ensure our long-term success. Michael Jordan never prepared for Championship game based on how the Triangle Offense works in the absence of tenacious defenders…