I tend to think that "moving on" is a positive attribute... at least when you're doing so because you learned the lesson, but perhaps not so much for those who move on because they prefer to stick their head in the sand and pretend that something bad that happened didn't actually happen if they don't look at it.

Our dads sound oddly similar. Mine felt I "wouldn't amount to much" because I was quite content with "doing well," as opposed to "winning."

When I was 20-ish, I almost went on the pro golf tour — yes, I was good — but ultimately decided against it because I merely saw it as a way to walk around in the sunshine and collecting $1000 a week for finishing 43rd in a tournament. I never saw it in terms of winning or being the best. I was not driven, I was just participating.

My mindset has pretty much always been to do well enough to get by and little more. Along the way, people have insisted that this is just "because I haven't found my PASSION, yet." Well, I turn 60 next month, so I really have my doubts as to the veracity of those assertions...

I did read your post last night (but it was too late for me to write a coherent comment!) and found myself nodding quite a bit. I'll go back and read again, with a less foggied brain...