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What We Gain From Disappointment

According to psychologists, philosophers, and poets, setbacks can strengthen character and invite growth.
What We Gain From Disappointment
With reflection and self-examination, disappointment can be transformed into greater understanding. the blowup/Unsplash
Walker Larson
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To some extent, disappointment punctuates our lives: in work, finances, health, and relationships. Is life, then, a long, drawn-out losing game, with the net result putting us in the red? Not according to Henry David Thoreau, who wrote in his journal, “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”

This is quite a claim. Aren’t disappointments, by definition, losses? Something we hoped for—desperately longed for, maybe—slipped from our grasp. How could loss lead to compensation, as Thoreau seems to suggest?

Walker Larson
Walker Larson
Author
Before becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master’s in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, “Hologram” and “Song of Spheres.”