There’s a James Clear quote I’ve been turning over quietly:

Focus on how the world is working with you, not against you. Everything you are given is material for the next move. Everything.

I want to believe that in the moment. But I usually don’t.

Because when something misses, when the plan breaks or the outcome falls flat…it doesn’t feel like material. It feels like a misread. Like I bet on the wrong thing, or aimed too high, or should’ve seen it coming.

And yet, when I look back, life’s been good to me, not in a perfect way, but in a “directional” way.

Things haven’t always gone to plan. But the detours, delays, and defeats? The stuff I filed under “setback”. They were never the dead ends I thought they were. They just didn’t announce what they were becoming.

They were building blocks or early moves. Sometimes even slingshots.

What I keep circling back to isn’t some mindset shift. It’s a simple recalibration:

→ What doesn’t work out still becomes part of the material.

→ What didn’t work still feeds what’s next.

→ What closes might be clearing space.

The harder part is remembering that while it’s happening.

Not that everything has meaning. But that maybe the world isn’t working against me. That when something disappears or doesn’t go through, it’s not always sabotage. It might be setup.

I forget that. A lot.

But when I remember, something settles.

And I start to build again.