Tick. Tick. The clock keeps moving, stopping for no one. We only have so much time, and we can never buy it back.

What does that mean? That means life is about choices. And if you want to be successful, your choices have to in line with your purpose, values, and goals in life. You won’t be where you want to be until you truly let your purpose consume you, until you want success that bad. And yet, people who “want success” choose to party on Saturday night over working on their ambitions. You need to want it as bad as you want to breath, not kinda want it.

It takes an immense amount of hours to get to that point of greatness, and that means removing the distractions. It’s about the power the word no. Until you can say no to dinner to work on your writing, until you can say no to going to the bar to work on your idea, you will not be successful.

Not all socialization is bad, but you need to realize what is leading toward your goals and what is not. And when you want that long term goal more than the temptation, you will be successful. There will always be that fear of missing out. There will always be things that you can do to get that short term happiness. But the happiness of achieving that bigger goal will trump anything else.

Ultimately, it comes down to habits. We are what we do repeatedly, and where you are in five years depends on your day to day decisions today. So choose key habits you want to build, and work on them one at a time.  Develop yourself, not for the sake of attention, but for the sake of improvement. Do this, and you’ll be exactly where you want to be.