A layover isn’t the trip going wrong. Some routes just have a stop in the middle.

Delays and detours get read as proof that a plan has failed, when plenty of routes are built with a pause partway through. A year doing something unrelated, a repeated class, a job that is not the one you wanted. Often that is the shape of the trip rather than evidence you boarded the wrong thing.

If you are in a holding stretch, work out what it is for and use it. Learn something, save something, or rest properly, so the next leg does not start with you empty.