This is an amusing point, in a subtle sense. We tend to think our life is all about the sand castles we build while playing here on the beach. Or maybe we build nothing and consider our self a failure?
And yet the only thing that we take away with us, when all is said and and all is done, has to do with the quality of our awareness. Was that deepened? Are we ready to learn at a deeper level now?
As you release identification with the impressions and expressions of self and simply take in what you observe and what you do without trying to actually own it (in the sense of make it yours forever), the more easily consciousness becomes flexible and able to grow in ways you could never predict.
It’s like, when you are in grade school, you could never imagine the extent of things you can learn in college. “Owning” what we are tends to keep us in the lower grades, if you will.