Been having some of these days myself. I have a theory (based on experience and intuition) that to make substantive long-term progress, the individual has to be tested along the way with failures. They can be small or large. They can be the individual’s fault or not. They tend to group together, meaning there will be multiple failure events in a short period of time. Refusing to quit despite things going wrong and figuring out how to succeed overall despite the problems is part of the process. The universe tests us all. Those who can answer the call despite the difficulties succeed. Those who can’t, don’t.