That may not always be possible (or even necessary) to relate to a real-life example, but as long as you develop some sort of intuition, of "feeling" about what you learned, you did not fail at learning that.

For example (taken from the article I mentioned on the other topic), when you think of a derivative, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

The equation that defines it? (http://calnewport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/deriva...)

Or this intuitive image? http://calnewport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/tangen...