I didn’t. Not in the beginning.
And I don’t think many of us truly do.
For the longest time, I believed I was failing again and again. But after deep conversations with mentors and a lot of personal reflection, I came to realize a critical truth:
I was confusing setbacks with failures.
Let’s break this down:
If you think you’ve failed when in reality you’ve only hit a temporary roadblock, your entire approach to growth and progress will fall apart. You’ll feel stuck. Disheartened. Lost.
Here’s the truth I’ve come to believe:
💡 95% of what we go through in life are not failures — they are setbacks.
They can be minor or major.
They can hurt.
They can shake your confidence.
But they are not failures.
💥 A setback is something that happens during your journey toward your goal.
❌ A failure, on the other hand, is only determined at the final stage — when the outcome is locked and you didn’t make it.
Most of us only focus on the destination, not the journey. That’s why we don’t analyze our setbacks, and we fail to learn from them or build immunity against them.
Here’s a simple framework I now use whenever I hit a setback:
- WHY did this happen?
- HOW did it happen?
- WHAT do I need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?
And the most critical part:
🔁 Take action based on your answers to these questions.
Setbacks are not the end.
They are course corrections — the small nudges that keep us aligned with our true path.
So next time you feel like a failure, take a pause.
Ask yourself:
Is this a real failure?
Or is it just a setback that’s here to teach me something?
Trust me — the distinction will change the way you navigate your journey.
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