There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

How you lose can say more than how you win. A defeat where you held to the thing you were defending, or gave everything you had, leaves you with something intact that an easy win would never have produced. Other people see it too, which is why some losses raise a person’s standing rather than lowering it.

If something went against you recently, separate the outcome from the conduct. Ask what you would keep if you had to do it again, and say that part out loud to yourself. The result is already fixed; what you carry out of it is not.