[dotnet00]

I disagree that the two are fundamentally at odds. If your goal is specifically to be a millionaire by 30, yeah, you're bound to be unhappy if you aren't near that by 29. But on the other hand, if you're more open minded about the flexibility of your goals, it can be a lot less painful. You just need the self-confidence that even if things don't go as expected, you're capable of finding another way or of changing the goal to something else that you find to give you similar or greater value.

I am a very harshly self-critical person in all my pursuits. Ordinarily it'd probably be pretty unhealthy, but I've always had a confidence in regards to technical pursuits (learning a new skill etc) that I could eventually figure them out, which has allowed me to reframe harsher criticism into stronger motivation. I didn't have this confidence regarding other things, which used to cause me a lot of stress and fears about being a 'failure'. Lately I've been building up this confidence for those things too, reframing being a 'failure' from someone who hasn't been able to achieve their core goals to someone who has given up on trying to achieve or change their core goals.