What I guess I am learning from my difficult situation is a deeper sense of who I am. And what I am capable of when it comes to handling disappointment. I think----at least I hope----I will come out of this a stronger person.

Today is a new day; you will get out if it just what you put into it. If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, you can make a new start whenever you choose. For the thing we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.

Most people can point to a disappointment or a failure that resulted in a quantum leap of self-knowledge and self-confidence. The confidence comes from knowing that you can get through ‘failure’ and come out stronger on the other side.

Some successful people find that they become ‘addicted’ to honors and accolades. They actually find that the sense of achievement you get from ‘winning’ needs to be constantly renewed. It’s not winning that’s hard. But that’s when you learn to dig deeper and do your best work. Not for the rewards of success but for the rewards of self-respect.

I found myself needing to dig down deep to find a firmer foundation upon which to build my understanding of what success is and what failure is. But eventually what emerged from the digging was a sense of something akin to freedom. A realization that there’s a feeling of accomplishment and success that comes from mastering the pain of failure.

Honors and accolades are wonderful. But none of them really teaches you anything of lasting value about yourself. Adversity, on the other hand, can be an inspirational teacher.