"Success is just around the corner"

Who hasn't seen those illustrations. They should give us the motivation to keep at it.

But they are completely wrong

In the real world you can forget about the diamonds in the ground. You will never know when you succeed, but what you can do is making educated predictions based on you own performance whether you will or won't succeed.

Don't be the crazy one that keeps on going fruitlessly on blind faith. You'll end up like the bottom one: old and sad and you can forget about the diamonds, they don't exist.

Know when to change your strategy, change your goals or when to call it quits.

Do the things you love

Would give up the things you love doing?
If you don't enjoy it in the first place and think about quitting, what makes you think you'll like it after you succeed?

Financial gain might make it worth it for a lot of people. In that case, more power to you, but remember the above. Be smart when chasing goals that don't fulfill you on the way.

Start small

Set reachable goals and acknowledge your weaknesses. If you know yourself and what to expect good enough, bad days won't dissuade you. They are part of everything.

Work on your habits, instead of focusing on results. As long as you keep going and love it, goals won't matter that much.

Reflect on the past

See how you have improved. Let that bolster your confidence.
Don't dream of the future as it's ever changing and might always seem unreachable.

Give up

Drop the things that don't offer you anything in return. Things that you once wanted to achieve, but not anymore. Goals which were over-ambitious.

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Dirk Laser Master never gave up.

/sulev