Temporary Defeat v. Failure
Temporary defeat is like encountering a detour on our way to work. Failure is like a car breakdown that prevents us from making it to work at all—and then we quit at the side of the road and our dream of getting to work dies. Zig Ziglar used to say that “we don’t drown if we fall in water, we only drown if we stay there.”
As we encounter setbacks, we need to honestly analyze if this is a temporary defeat that we will learn and grow from, or if this will be the failure that means the end of this particular project, goal, career, or relationship. We can rebound from temporary defeat, we cannot rebound from failure.
Failure is an event. It is not a person. Yesterday really did end last night. Today is the first day if the rest of your life.