For fifteen years, I’ve shot pool every single day.  For the last nine years, I’ve shot twice per day. I take about 15,000 shots per year.

  I have a way of recording how I’m doing…a game, really, that I play against myself. I’ve improved every year for the last ten years.

  This year will be the first year that I’ve not improved.  I will have regressed to about where I was two years ago. Not a lot…a tiny difference, in the game I play.  About 1/10th of a shot per game. A small regression. Still, significant.

 And yet, I know I’m still improving. This off year has been good for me. Each day, I look forward to playing.

  It’s different, though, when things aren’t going well.  Tendency?  To start to press when in a slump.  Makes it easy to do even worse.

  This year has reminded me that I enjoy playing, no matter what my scores are. Also keeps me reminded that my goal is to become a great player — not just to have great scores.

Maybe you are the same. Like my pool shooting year, maybe some of your measurements were off this year. But maybe you learned a lot.  Maybe you were strengthened.  Maybe you became more fit to face future challenges.

  Each setback contains the seeds of future successes.