Embracing Little Failures
Early in the morning, with the sun just peeking over the horizon, I stepped onto the train. Nothing special, I do this every day. I looked for a seat, sat down, and double‑checked whether I had taken all my belongings with me. In principle that isn’t necessary, because everything is usually in order.
Except today. I forgot my work phone.
It’s not a problem if people cannot call me, but it is a problem that all the multi‑factor authentication is set up on that phone. Maybe not for every work‑related software and website, but for several that become impossible to access without it.
God damn it.
After a minute of wondering whether I should just stay seated and try to survive the day despite this stupidity, I finally got up, left the train, and grabbed my bike to ride back home. The bike must have been surprised when it saw me reappear after just ten minutes.
And I even thought, "Forget it, I’ll bike back home and work from there; the world can wait." I could have done that, but somewhere the thought persisted that I was being tested, as if someone was watching from above, evaluating my level of perseverance. And to be honest, it would feel pretty weak not to ride those five minutes back and forth, with a much more comfortable day as a result.
Small setbacks like this are meant to be overcome. The more you experience them, the easier it gets. Just as you work on your routines, you need to encounter these situations several times before you automatically accept them for what they are: little bumps on an otherwise smooth road.
Twenty or so minutes later I’m on the next train, heading toward what turned out to be a perfectly fine and productive day.
In the end, everything worked out.