Setbacks aren’t reversals. They’re just the spot where the road bends.

A setback reads as a reversal because progress gets pictured as a straight line, so anything off that line looks like going backward. Most real paths bend. An injury, a rejection or a year that did not work out changes the route without changing the direction, and usually you can only see that a good while later.

When something knocks you sideways, give yourself a week of feeling bad about it, then ask what the new route looks like. Not the old plan with an apology attached. The actual next step from where you are standing now.