Imagine someone shows you a graph with just one dot on it and asks:
“What’s the trend?”
You'd probably say, “I can't tell. There's only one point.”
And yet we often do exactly that with ourselves.
One bad exam becomes: “I'm not good at this.”
One rejection becomes: “Maybe I'm not cut out for this.”
One interview that went badly becomes: “I'm terrible at interviews.”
The experience may be telling you something. It is worth looking at.
But one result is still one result.
Before turning it into a conclusion about yourself, perhaps ask:
“Is this a pattern — or is it one data point?”
Sometimes you need more evidence before you draw the graph.