A comeback isn’t a return to who you were. It’s arriving as someone the setback helped build.

Recovery is not a restoration of the previous model. What comes back is a different arrangement, carrying what the difficult stretch taught and missing some of what it took, and measuring it against the old version guarantees disappointment. You are not trying to get back to the person who had not been through it.

Stop scoring yourself against a former self who existed under different conditions. Ask instead what this version can do that the earlier one could not. Usually the list is longer than you expected and includes things you would not trade away.