Have you had a discouraging setback recently? You work really hard on that presentation at work, and your plan is rejected. That home-improvement project that seemed simple turns out to be tricky, time-consuming, and a lot more expensive than you thought. You strive to meet a challenging goal—and fall short of attaining it.

What do you do when you smack face-first into failure? Do you get negative and bitter? Do you allow discouragement to overwhelm you? Do you give up?

Letdowns happen to us all. How we respond is what’s important.

I recently encountered this poem that speaks to the need to keep life’s struggles, obstacles and failures in perspective.

’Tis a lesson you should heed,

Try, try again;

If at first you don’t succeed,

Try, try again;

Then your courage should appear,

For, if you will persevere,

You will conquer, never fear;

Try, try again.

Once or twice though you should fail,

Try, try again;

If you would at last prevail,

Try, try again;

If we strive, ’tis no disgrace

Though we do not win the race;

What should you do in the case?

Try, try again.

If you find your task is hard,

Try, try again;

Time will bring you your reward,

Try, try again;

All that other folks can do,

Why, with patience, should not you?

Only keep this rule in view:

Try, try again.

Why try again when it’s so much easier to sigh again or cry again and just give up? Because failure is part of learning.

Nobody is an instant expert. If you’re pushing yourself and doing hard things and learning and growing, you’re going to fail. If something is really worth doing, it will take time, effort and yes, failure, to learn it!

If you only do what comes easy to you and what you’re already good at, you will be stuck in mediocrity. If, when you fail, you give up, you will never grow. It was true when you were learning to talk, it’s true as you’re learning to deliver a speech or replace a leaky faucet.

Wendell Phillips said, “What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first steps to something better.”

There’s something magnificent about watching a baby first learning to walk. This tiny human is amusingly awkward—on the edge of disaster at all times—repeatedly falling on his diaper-padded tushie. And yet he is happy, wide-eyed, exhilarated—acting like these unsteady steps are spiking his adrenaline like the final strides up the peak of Everest.

Imagine the baby who, after a handful of failed walking attempts, gives up in exasperation. Now he’s 45 years old, still crawling on his hands and knees. “Yeah—I tried walking. Not my thing. I’ve got no talent.” That would be pretty awkward.

In his booklet The Seven Laws of Success (we’d be happy to send you a free copy), the sixth of the seven laws Herbert W. Armstrong described is perseverance. This booklet says: “[N]ine in ten, at least once or twice in a lifetime, come to the place where they appear to be totally defeated! All is lost!—apparently, that is. They give up and quit, when just a little more determined hanging on, just a little more faith and perseverance—just a little more stick-to-it-iveness—would have turned apparent certain failure into glorious success.”

Learning to gracefully handle disappointment and to bounce back from failure will make you a lot more successful at a lot more things in your life. The person who remains positive, learns from his mistakes, applies the lessons of a failure and charges forward for another attempt, is the person who ultimately nails it.

Proverbs 24:16 is a wonderful proverb to remember: “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” Everybody falls. When the wicked fall, they don’t get back up. But when the righteous fall, they refuse to give up. They rise to their feet and keep moving forward. “Seven times” is an expression that means over and over, again and again.

Psalm 145:14 gives another scriptural promise to keep in mind: “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.” When you fall, God will revive you. When you’re discouraged, God will pick you up and encourage you, just like a parent who is excitedly helping his toddler learn how to walk.

So, you failed. Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you’re human like the rest of us. Think it through, get counsel, learn what you can from the mistake. Rise up, lift your chin, and move forward. The harder you work for something, the sweeter it will be when you achieve it.