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No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma - but we make out of them just what suits our purposes.
Alfred Adler
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Our responses to experiences shape our success or failure, not the experiences themselves.

Alfred Adler's quote emphasizes that it is not the events we encounter in life that determine our success or failure, but rather our interpretation and reaction to those events. He suggests that we have the power to shape our experiences into something that aligns with our goals, rather than being victims of trauma or circumstance.

Themes

ExperienceSuccessFailureTraumaPerceptionPower

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech to encourage resilience and personal growth.

More from Alfred Adler

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
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Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long as he does not understand it.
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The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.
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All failures - neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes - are failures because they are lacking in social interest
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What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!
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A little wisdom, now and then

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