Scientists don’t call a failed experiment a failure. They call it data. Borrow their vocabulary.

The word failure carries a verdict, and the verdict attaches to you rather than to the attempt. Calling the same event data moves the focus to what it revealed, which is both more accurate and more usable. The experiment did what experiments do: it eliminated a possibility, which is progress even when it does not feel like any.

Change the sentence you say to yourself when something does not work. Ask what it ruled out and what you would try next. The vocabulary is not a trick to feel better, it is a more honest description of what happened.