Why You Shouldn’t Rush Your Journey to Success

The number one thing people obsess over is success. The idea of “making it” and reaching a peak where you feel validated can be a toxic process if you’re impatient. Even worse, you might not make it to your destination at all.

As a soldier in the U.S. Army, my goal was to build up enough capital and marketing skills to work for a company and make money investing. After nearly three months of my process, I’m not having as much success as I had hoped. This is life. This is the process that everyone talks about.

Psychology Today spoke to a financial advisor who deals with some pretty big time multimillionaire clients. They said that the money is never enough. Making money is like a race with no finish line. They aren’t content, always looking to make more money. None of them ever seem to say, “I have enough money now. Thank you.”

The race to success or money is imaginary. It’s something we create in our heads, and it’s damaging. Here are three reasons why you shouldn’t rush your journey to success.

You Will Never Be Happy Until You “Make It”

As individuals, we are our own biggest critics. If you’re too hard on yourself, however, then you’re never going to be happy. Although you haven’t made it to your destination, you can still be grateful for the journey.

By investing in the stock market, I expected to be up over $20,000 by now, but I’m up $10,000. This is still an incredible achievement, but I myself am still incredibly hard on myself. Someone from the outside might think this type of behavior is too self-obsessive or success-driven, and they’d be right.

Positive psychology research discovered that “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships”.

Allow yourself to live in the moment. Pat yourself on the back when you make strides in the right direction. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating the little wins.

They all add up in the end.

More Mistakes are Bound to Happen

Avoid rushing to the imaginary finish line of success, or else you’ll make more mistakes. Trying to go fast isn’t always the answer. On my road to making 20k in the stock market, I have made tremendous progress over the past year.

The biggest mistake I made was trying to make bank on short-term success. I started trading on more options. I started making plays that were far out of my comfort zone, and I suffered a loss on some of my profits. That’s instant karma of trying to move too fast.

According to INC, “It’s not about how much you do. It’s about taking the time to give your best and refusing to sacrifice well-being.”

When you take your time in your process, you pay more attention to detail and notice the little things. In your line of work, you’re going to accumulate all of the technicalities necessary to be successful over time.

In stock market terms, invest in a secure ETF and hold it for a long time versus buying a scratch-off lottery ticket every day.

Sometimes, the jackpot never comes, and then you lose it all.

Trusting The Process Wins 99% of The Time

Be patient, and your time will come. No matter what you’re trying to accomplish in life, you’ll make it. Remain optimistic.

My stock market journey had ups in the beginning until I changed my strategy and got impatient. I experienced FOMO when it comes to money, and I saw everyone else cashing out big while I had small consistent profits.

If I had stuck to my buying and holding long-term trading strategy, I’d be in a much better place than I am right now. Luckily, I work for a stock trading community that is helping me turn all of that around.

According to the Boston Globe, “Instant gratification is making us perpetually impatient. It’s why you have people at Disney World paying for a pass so they don’t have to wait in line,” he added. “You have people who don’t mind paying for things like same-day delivery.”

The eyes always have to be on the prize. You’ll get to where you’re trying to go without rushing it. Live for today. Enjoy the journey. Relish the highs and learn from the lows.

Life is a long game, and big things don’t always happen fast.

Why You Need to Be Optimistic to Build Wealth

Do You Know Your Intent?

Knowing why you’re doing something is more important than what you’re doing. If you have no idea why you’re striving for success, you’re going to reach your milestone and feel incredibly empty inside.

A working definition for intention is: “To have in mind a purpose or plan, to direct the mind, to aim.” Lacking intention, we sometimes stray without meaning or direction.

Working hard and busting your ass to pursue the entire process is going to leave you saying, “and I did all that, for what?”. Many of us rush into something to make money. Most individuals link their happiness to the dollar amount in their bank accounts. It’s an extremely toxic behavior.

My investing intent is to be able to accumulate more assets than liabilities. I plan to use my profits from stocks to cash out on in the future when I feel like it. Before writing this, I thought about the short-term gains — feeling great about having money for stability, rent, and so on, but it’s just a side hustle. It’s not my entire life.

Is the work that you’re doing something you’re passionate about? Do you feel like you're on the wrong path? That’s okay. You don’t have to run. That’s what psychology’s “fight or flight” would tell you to do. Stay the course and move on when you know it’s no longer right for your circumstances.

The intention should never be to impress other people. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is one of the most toxic mindsets, and people, including me, want to be successful, so they do things like take big risks or overextend themselves on things they can’t afford.

Run your own race, no one else’s. Once you establish your intent, embody it.

Takeaway

Success is an idea, not a specific destination that exists. As humans, we will always be chasing something bigger and better. It’s in our DNA, and we can’t let it consume our lives.

If you rush your journey to success, you’ll never truly be happy until you “make it.”

More mistakes are bound to happen if you crave instant gratification, so take your time.

Trust the process because you’ll absorb the little things necessary to get you to where you want to be.

Be sure you know your intent and why you’re putting so much pressure on yourself to succeed.

To truly be happy, we have to prioritize acknowledging our present selves rather than our future selves.