We're disproportionately averse to losing our time and money. This immediate pain of loss quickly makes us become short-sighted and stops us from seeing the bigger picture. We start making knee-jerk decisions that hurt us in in the long run.

Consider a financial trader who's just lost a lot of money in the markets, or a new oil painter who's produced a work of art that they don't like. "All that wasted money on those investments." "All that time I spent on that painting, and it looks awful." In one, there is a painful loss of money, and in the other, there is a loss of time and pride. Both could give up.

However, there is hope. Instead of dwelling only on these pains, offering a perspective of ones higher level future goals or mission can help reduce our attachment to any wasted effort along the way.

In both cases, one can greatly learn from these losses, seeing them as a necessary part of the broader process to achieve greatness. For both, the road ahead is long and many mistakes simply have to be made to get there. This is especially so in the beginning, when confidence and skill are low, and losses will loom particularly harder than any gains down the line.

But without such losses, we do not have the all-important feedback loop that something wasn't quite right. We didn't time that trade quite right, or we didn't get the values right on that painting.

How can you package your or others' losses as part of a necessary sacrifice towards a much bigger goal?‍ Nobody starts good at anything, but if we can overcome the short term pain of failure by seeing it as a crucial part of the process to reach our goals, we'll be on our way to mastery.