By temperament, I’m quite risk-averse. I often need to step back and assess what metrics of risk, failure, and success I’m using.

As a Christian, I believe I am called to be faithful, not “successful” as the world judges. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

Whatever you believe or don’t believe in terms of religious faith, the fact remains that if you try your best at something and are tempted to call it a failure, hard work can be its own reward. At least, it definitely brings its own benefits, regardless of the world’s measure of success.

You develop patience, endurance, strength, and wisdom from giving something worthwhile your all.

You develop particular skills, according to the endeavor you made.

You develop courage in putting yourself out there and letting yourself be vulnerable to failure.

You may discover you’re building a foundation or a launchpad for something else. Whether to try something else or to try again–to move on or double down and keep at it–after something doesn’t work out as you’d like is a case-specific question that can’t be addressed with generalities. But sometimes, we set ourselves up to flourish in a different way by trying something that doesn’t go as well as we’d hoped it would.

The point is, what the world calls failures aren’t reasons for discouragement or despair. They are great opportunities to learn, develop, reassess, course correct, and reap great benefits.

We all need reminders of this from time to time.