Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

It's weird. From what I've read (and I've read a lot), one can achieve happiness when one achieves success, but one only achieves success by reaching a worthy ideal.

And once that happens, you have to strive for another ideal. Success isn't something you get; it's a state, and as with any state, you have to work at it to maintain it.

You reap what you sow. You can't be happy unless you're successful, and you can't get there until you put the work into it. It's like when people say, "I'll be successful when I'm rich." Well, no...you'll be rich when you're successful, and when you're successful, you can live by your own definition of rich.

Now if only I could put that into practice. Oh, hey, that's where I want to be in 3 years.

I want to have clear goals and to be working toward them. I want to be in a state of mind where putting in the work is something I do even if I don't feel like it. I want to control my impulses toward immediate gratification by keeping my eye on the prize of lasting change and success.

I want to bear in mind that goals need not be rigid and cast in stone; they simply need to be. Solid goals are S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-specific.

If you don't write down your goals and review them regularly, they aren't goals...they're merely dreams.