@saxnot I recently had this revelation, and I've started to call these times in my life "periods," like Picasso's Blue Period. No one considered him a failure when he moved on to Rose.

I was an RN for 10 years before I got too sick to work. I spent a lot of time hating myself for failing--instead, I'm learning to recognize this was my "nurse" period, and I was a success. <3