Little by little I try to have an ongoing dialogue in my head about what I want and how I’m going to get there. Once when I was discussing this stress with a professor, they stopped and shared a quote they once heard, which really resonated with me … “After years of hard work, I became an overnight success.”

Now I could share a dozen metaphors for success with you but we both know very well that in this industry it takes a lot of hard work to achieve greatness. In addition to taking baby steps to reach a goal, I also tried to stop comparing myself to other people who, despite them being the same age as me, are doing things in the industry that make me face-palm and wonder how they got to that point so early in their career. When I compare myself to other people it leaves me feeling bad and discouraged but once you learn to kick the habit and start comparing your present self to your past self and seeing how far you’ve come, a great sense of pride will wash over you when you realize that you have done something that gets you one step closer to reaching you goals, whatever they may be.