Now, you might say that is just trying to fool yourself when the truth is different. Is it? Truth has many faces, and the face you choose is the truth for you. Be a proper citizen, exercise your rights of choice and choose a better life over a lousy one. In tough neighborhoods of my hometown, there were plenty of street fights, and there was a motto: ''you fight today and run away, you live to fight another day.'' It's not cowardice but good sense to refuse allowing immediate and transient truth to rule and ruin your life permanently.
In personal life and career, all successes and failures are relative to your own perceptions and standards set only by you. You do not need to live as an ambitionless hermit, but do need be a practical person who knows when to shift ambitions and expectations, and adapt to changing circumstances. Flexibility and adaptation form the key to life and happiness. Only people who are inflexible and do not accommodate realities when marking their goalposts, miss to score and experience failure.
Career wise, working in a particular job position can mean career success to someone and career failure to somebody else. It all depends upon individual perceptions, ambitions, and expectations. You know this already. But are you aware of it? If you are, then failure cannot exist in your life.
How many times have you seen people radically shift professions, succeed, and become famous in life? I have known doctors who became renowned footballers, chemical engineers who became famous dieticians tending celebrities, and bodybuilders who became writers. Would you say that they were failures? If they stuck with their immediate targets, they would have never reached where they are today.
Life is transient, so all your so-called targets are transient and the path to success lies in aligning your abilities with reality. If the reality is that you are not up to a task, or not suitable for a particular job, or a particular profession, then accept that reality and move on. There is always a place for you in this world, which is made for you, and you are made for that role.
It does matter whether you made a real try to get what you wanted or not. But if you were sincere in your attempts and yet missed your targets, then cool down and examine the situation closely. Make a real cost-benefit analysis. I have seen many people going to law school, giving up jobs on the notion that adding a law degree on their resume can work wonders. Mostly they miss the fact that harder and smarter work on the jobs they gave up would have earned them more money and real experience than an additional law degree. Usually, such guys end up with a law degree and a big loan, finding that both are meaningless as far as progressing in the career the intend to continue is concerned. Why do people take such wrong decisions? By being obsessed by targets and failing to align their capabilities to reality. They fail themselves by failing to shift the goal posts.
Miss a bus, catch a flight. Don't spend your life running after a missed bus.
