Acharya Prashant responds to a question about spiraling into negativity when looking at past mistakes instead of learning from them. He begins by validating the questioner's conclusion that she will fail again, stating that this conclusion is not misplaced. If one repeats what they did the last time, they will indeed fail again. The conclusion is perfectly right, but it comes with a condition: that one does not want to change. He explains that for the result to change, something must change. Since the task remains the same and its weight hasn't reduced, the only thing that can change is the person facing it. This includes their approach, their self-assessment, and the effort they put in. However, the ego does not want to change itself; it only wants to change the results. To truly change one's actions, one must change who they are. The ego is attached to self-preservation and will defend itself. When looking at a past failure, the ego concludes it will fail again because it does not want to change, and in that sense, the ego is right. Acharya Prashant emphasizes that one has a choice to change, as taught by Vedanta, which he describes as a philosophy of great empowerment. One is not a fixed entity and can choose to be big or small. If one chooses to be small, they will be dwarfed by big challenges. The challenge is only relatively big because one has chosen to be small. He advises that if a project is of tremendous importance and truly lovable, one would rather change than fail. In such cases, one cannot afford to drop the project, so the only option is to drop the weaknesses. The ego's drive for self-preservation can become self-destructive. Therefore, when looking at failures, one should ask what it was within them that failed. One must identify the 'loser' within and discard it. This way, every failure becomes a stepping stone and an opportunity to know oneself and improve.
