How can I embrace challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and development, rather than viewing them as setbacks?

I know this is similar to how I responded to the last couple of prompts I put up (When you want to seek constructive criticism and Artistic inspiration) and it should be considering the source (the DayOne app website) but I wanted to briefly expand a bit on the mental side of things.

When I think of “setbacks” I think of falling behind. Falling behind what or who? I don’t really know. The idea, though, is that there is a preconceived goal that you’re aiming for, even if you don’t consciously recognize what that goal is. Additionally, on a subtle level, there is a kind of time aspect to all of it. Keeping up or keeping pace in some kind of “race” to be good or successful. All of these things are external factors, though.

So, for myself, I stopped looking at these external factors as the hurdles for development. I’ve read it elsewhere in many places, but the thing that helped me break from these external factors is a quote from Matty Mullins that has been taken and reworded or expanded in different ways.

The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

Matty Mullins

Taking those words to heart, and only focusing on how I did things before, makes it easier to look at those challenges and failures as opportunities instead of setbacks. It’s not the external factors that are important measures of progress, they just exist to provide ideas and direction. It’s what I actually try to achieve that matters, and if I fail then I can just step back, dissect and analyze, and try a different way to see if I do better. That’s how I try to frame it in my mind so that I can keep moving forward.