# Setbacks

By [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2) · 2025-04-10

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I’m not proud of how I react to the setbacks I face.

When I encounter one, in particular those that are self-inflicted (I’m looking at you, scale), that negative voice in my head takes front and center stage.

It’s the voice of the slippery slope towards total, complete, abject failure.

It feels like I’m in a fight with myself that I’m never going to win and so, I understand the instinct for capitulation. It can feel Promethean in its magnitude and it makes me feel vulnerable, scared, and weak.

None of those are feelings that I enjoy. I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard.

But I have a choice.

Either I can beat myself up relentlessly, which usually impacts all aspects of my mood and behavior, potentially for days, and doesn’t usually end up anywhere positive.

Or, like the great athletes who say “it’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get up,” I can view setbacks in context.

They are gifts.

They are learning opportunities.

They are a chance to do a PCA- a Primary Cause Analysis- of WHY did the setback happen? What led to it?

And then, if not solve the problem, at least create a hypothesis to test the next time that the potential for a similar setback is on the horizon.

This shift is a rewiring of the paradigm, both before and after the setback occurs.

For me, that’s where meditation can come in, but no matter how the analysis happens, the analysis must happen.

And then we must, if we are to achieve our full potential, at least try something new and different.

That’s hard, but it’s ok. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

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*Originally published on [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/setbacks)*