It’s no small task trying to be successful. Most everyone knows that it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve your goals, but if you just keep on pushing, you’ll be able to make it there. 

This idea of being able to do anything if you try hard enough excites a lot of people, and so they’ll often try to work as hard as they can around the clock to make it work. However, what these people often fail to realize is that this kind of hasty work can end up with you burning out. 

Moral Letters 19.4 states  You cannot keep lurking in the dark; much of the old gleam will follow you wherever you fly. Peace you can claim for yourself without being disliked by anyone, without any sense of loss, and without any pangs of spirit. For what will you leave behind you that you can imagine yourself reluctant to leave? Your clients? But none of these men courts you for yourself; they merely court something from you. People used to hunt friends, but now they hunt pelf; if a lonely old man changes his will, the morning-caller transfers himself to another door. Great things cannot be bought for small sums; so reckon up whether it is preferable to leave your own true self, or merely some of your belongings

Many people tend to be a bit too hard on themselves when it comes to their progress, seemingly for no valid reason. They like to hold themselves to such high standards for no reason other than to try to push themselves harder, but in reality, it might be detracting from their overall experience. 

If you’re not able to be happy when you make progress, you’re going to have a hard time motivating yourself to keep on going, leading to you burn out or give up altogether before you achieve your goals.

Discourses  2.23.42 states Your business, man, was to prepare yourself for such use of the semblances of things as nature demands; not to fail in what you seek, or incur what you shun; never to be disappointed or unfortunate, but free, unrestrained, uncompelled; conformed to the Divine Administration, obedient to that; finding fault with nothing;  

There are many aspects of success that can be intimidating, but nothing is more daunting than imagining the long, tedious road that many people have ahead of them in their efforts to become successful. 

There’s always so much left to do, and it can be stressful and exhausting to think about. Instead of focusing on things like this, though, you can focus on the positive aspects of your journey to keep you motivated along the way.

Moral Letters 31.6 states  What then is good? The knowledge of things. What is evil? The lack of knowledge of things. Your wise man, who is also a craftsman, will reject or choose in each case as it suits the occasion; but he does not fear that which he rejects, nor does he admire that which he chooses, if only he has a stout and unconquerable soul. I forbid you to be cast down or depressed. It is not enough if you do not shrink from work; ask for it.

When you get up in the morning, you have a full day ahead of you to accomplish any number of things, all of which could either leave you where you currently are or help you progress to the next level. 

Each day is a new chance to do things you want to do for improvement, whether that means tending to your relationships or getting something accomplished at your job. Either way, it’s full of opportunities for you to advance. 

Meditations 9.19 states All things are changing: and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction, and the whole universe too.

Overthinking occurs when you worry so much about something that you spend too much time thinking about it, and end up getting it stuck in your own head so there’s room for nothing else, eventually leading you to make poor decisions and fail. 

People like this will get so caught up in all the semantics and little things that they forget the bigger picture and start to stress themselves out about things that barely even matter. 

Discourses 3.8.1-2 states In the same manner as we exercise ourselves against sophistical questions, we should exercise ourselves likewise in relation to such semblances as every day occur; for these, too, offer questions to us. Such a one’s son is dead. What think you of it? Answer; it is a thing inevitable, and therefore not an evil. Such a one is disinherited by his father. What think you of it? It is inevitable, and so not an evil. Ceaar has condemned him. This is inevitable, and so not an evil. He has been afflicted by it. This is controllable by Will; it is an evil. He has supported it bravely. This is within the control of Will; it is a good.

One of the most dangerous problems that could bring all of your efforts towards success crumbling down is procrastination. Procrastination can incite panic and stress, which each have their own detriments, but it can also prevent you from getting your work done on time and effectively, which could hold you back from succeeding. 

Moral Letters 107.12. Let us live thus, and speak thus; let Fate find us ready and alert. Here is your great soul – the man who has given himself over to Fate; on the other hand, that man is a weakling and a degenerate who struggles and maligns the order of the universe and would rather reform the gods than reform himself.

For many people, change is a difficult thing. There’s so much to it that can make you uncomfortable, and people sometimes start to give up on it as a result, even if the end goal of that change is a positive one. 

They don’t want to spend that time being uncomfortable. They’d rather live with the mediocrity and stay where they’re used to being. This kind of mindset is not one built for success. 

Discourses 3.6.5 states A good man is invincible; for he does not contend where he is not superior. If you would have his land, take it; take his servants, take his office, take his body. But you will never frustrate his desire, nor make him incur his aversion. He engages in no combat but what concerns objects within his own control. How then can he fail to be invincible? 

Any parent who has read a book on discipline knows that to teach a child properly, you must use a combination of different types of consequences to help reinforce the kinds of behaviors you want them to learn. Every choice that we make in our lives, after all, leads to either positive or negative consequences. 

When you are pursuing a goal, your motivation will come and go. Sometimes, you will be really motivated just by your intrinsic need to succeed and reach the end. Other times, you will struggle to remember why you even started this journey. One way to set yourself up for success is to plan your consequences, both positive and negative. Rewards and penalties can help you stay on track and keep you motivated throughout the lengthy process of change. 

Moral Letters 76.33-34 states Today it is you who threaten me with these terrors; but I have always threatened myself with them, and have prepared myself as a man to meet man's destiny."  If an evil has been pondered beforehand, the blow is gentle when it comes. To the fool, however, and to him who trusts in fortune, each event as it arrives "comes in a new and sudden form," and a large part of evil, to the inexperienced, consists in its novelty. This is proved by the fact that men endure with greater courage, when they have once become accustomed to them, the things which they had at first regarded as hardships.

Stress is an emotional and physical response that we show towards different pressures from the workplace, school and other institutions. Stress reactions would include inability to focus, concentrate, headache and fast heartbeat. Almost everybody develops stress, but how we deal with it is important. Self discipline is something that can be done to deal with stress. 

When overcoming stress with self discipline, it is important to recognize first the stress in a present force in whatever career we choose. But stress can be dealt with. If you are handling a business team, then you should learn that stress can affect the productivity of workers.  

Moral Letters 92.8. The irrational part of the soul is twofold: the one part is spirited, ambitious, uncontrolled; its seat is in the passions; the other is lowly, sluggish, and devoted to pleasure. Philosophers have neglected the former, which, though unbridled, is yet better, and is certainly more courageous and more worthy of a man, and have regarded the latter, which is nerveless and ignoble, as indispensable to the happy life.

Emotional discipline is exercising your ability to control how you feel. And once you acknowledge that you have this ability as well as this right, you can finally learn to manage your life and become the master of your destiny. 

And when you do allow your emotions to be in the driver’s seat of your life, there can be some negative consequences that you will have to consider.

Enchiridion 50. States Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself. abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours. How long, then, will you put off thinking yourself worthy of the highest improvements and follow the distinctions of reason? You have received the philosophical theorems, with which you ought to be familiar, and you have been familiar with them.