Getting what you wanted sometimes shows you it wasn’t what you needed. That’s still progress.

Some things can only be ruled out by getting them. You arrive, find that the feeling you were promised has not shown up, and learn something about yourself that no amount of thinking would have produced. That is not a wasted want. It is how the next, better aimed one gets built.

If something you worked for has landed flat, write down what you thought it would give you. The gap between that and what it actually gave you is the useful part, and it tells you where to look next.