[wrs]

I will humbly restate this advice slightly based on 2-3X the life experience: Don’t have “end goals”. There’s no way to be satisfied with that approach. Either you reach the end and haven’t achieved them (you’re a “failure”), or you achieve them but aren’t at the end (now what?).

Instead, have a direction, or preferably more than one. Strive to make progress in those directions and celebrate your progress. If you enjoy running the race, rather than just look to the finish line, you’ll have reason to be satisfied the whole time. And if you don’t have a goal, there’s no reason to ever stop being satisfied.

Bonus points if you can train yourself to be satisfied based on just one criterion: Did I learn something? Because then there are no “failures” to worry about, and you’ll be much more open to trying new things.

[smusamashah]

I have learned some time ago that goals are mere milestones. I have found myself not being happy/excited enough (as in how I see others get excited on things) when I get something. It's very short lived, I find myself more excited 'before' getting it then 'on' getting it. I get the thing, it may or may not have changed the world for me at all, now what, repeat.

[gottorf]

> Don’t have “end goals”.

> Instead, have a direction, or preferably more than one. Strive to make progress in those directions and celebrate your progress.

I like putting the same concept in these terms: most things in life are a process, not a state.

[wrs]

Yes indeed. It’s still good to celebrate when you reach a particularly good state during the process. Just don’t overconstrain the set of potential good states ahead of time, because the process might take you somewhere else.

[saalweachter]

"Journey before destination"?

[wrs]

More like ”journey is all there is”.

[fuzzythinker]

I have a Steve Jobs book with "The Journey is the reward" as the subtitle on the spline that I pretty much kept just for that.