setback

the trouble is, we tend to see every setback as a defeat, as if our armies had been slaughtered and there was nothing left for the survivors but to flee back to the woods. but what seems to be a defeat might well be merely a setback, something that didn't go as we'd planned, but which has no particular meaning, no relevance and no consequence. i should know it by now, to be honest, as i've told it several times to people who were in need of hearing such words; yet it's a fact that while some people really listen to myself, i don't; and that's my mistake, not theirs. of course.

maybe it is about time for me to start believing in my own beliefs. how to do it, however, is a question whose answer seems to be far beyond me.