Just pure dumb luck. Being in the right place at the right time. I guess if there’s any takeaway from that, it’s just to stay attentive and stay open. You never know when the thing that’s going to change your life is going to arrive.

Well, I just worked my ass off. Now, I can buy as much candy as I could ever want.

Unfortunately, I’ve lost the taste for it, and it’s no longer as appealing as it was when I was 5.

Dream achieved?

A mix of extreme luck, hard work to put myself in a situation where I could get extremely lucky, and lowering my expectations. College (almost died from stress several times) -> job at shitty company with no money and had to pay me in stock -> company gets huge -> company sells for a fuck ton of money -> move to a much cheaper area, 2000 miles away from all my family and friends -> buy a house.

It’s not much, but my dream has been to have an apartment and consistent income at the same time.

I’m 40 and I’m about to achieve it.

I honestly can even remember my other dreams except in the faintest of washed out images.

Joining a men’s group helped. Working through trauma has freed up a lot of my mental resources. I can work more, I’m less prone to escape into drugs, junk food, whatever. I’m able to recognize my feelings and hence can make decisions easily instead of always having to think them through.

I’m a little envious of those who had this stability in their twenties — a place of their own, that they can organize however they like and be alone whenever they want, plus money to furnish it and not worry about bills going unpaid. But mostly I’ve learned not to compare because it’s so damned painful and unproductive.

I’d say fundamentally the way I achieved it was by learning to take baby steps. A year ago I was homeless. I got a job washing cars. Now I’m a kitchen designer and I’m about to get my own apartment.

I wish I had this kind of mental health twenty years ago. But I’m glad I didn’t go another twenty years without attaining it.

I have very a simple dream, which is, being happy, after idfk years i finally got it, i just needed to open up, and tell some bad jokes. Guess it’s just luck

Sure, there was hard work. A lot of time spent getting good at what I do, studying, and what not. But I’m going to be blunt: it was a lot of luck. Anyone who says otherwise is probably lacking insight.

Luck in having the circumstances where I was able to focus enough efforts and have the energy to do so. Luck in encountering the right opportunity and people along the way.

Not trying to downplay effort, but a lot of comments make it seem like all you have to do is work hard and you’ll get rewarded. Sometimes you totally will. And other times you’ll crash and burn or be taken advantage of.

I lowered my expectations. Putting less pressure on myself gave me the breathing room to eventually realize that what I thought I wanted was wrong. I’m not the person I imagined I was going to be and I’m grateful for it.

Hard work supplemented by a tremendous amount of luck and privilege

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Found a like-minded partner, got married, got pregnant, got pregnant again, got married again, got pregnant again.

I think I’m also in the same situation as you. I am kinda unknown about what my goal for this year is honestly. I know that I wanted to become a low poly artist but I don’t think I have done enough to get to there yet. Still I consider myself now to be a much better artist than when I started st the start of this year, so maybe I have achieved my goal of being an OK artist, and that seems to be enough for me

Determination, perseverance. Stumble and get back up. Our modern world of instant gratification for everything has made us lazy and complacent. You gotta fight that temptation for the quick fix.

I recently was accepted into a nursing program in my state. It took me three years of hard work in college to get all the necessities to apply. Now it’s two more years of hard work.

My secret however is that I have a family I need to take care of. Nothing will motivate a person like having a child that you now need to ensure they are taken care and have all needs met. There is nothing I will not do for my child.

Before my child though when I did meet my goals, I had something that I would do for myself. On top of determination and drive, there needs to be incentive for completing the tasks, be it large or small. For example after I finish nursing school, I am going to take my family to Disney land or something.

I wouldn’t really say I’m who you’re asking, but I’ve looked hard at a lot of statistics on this. It’s mostly luck, with a big helping of what you were given either through birth or early life, which is just a form of luck if you think about it.

Anything beyond that is going to be a matter of your particular situation, and which things you’re willing and able to change about it. If there was a silver bullet everyone would already use it.

At least some of my goals are pretty straightforward lol. Travel-related goals really just require following the thread from beginning to end to figure out all the things you’ll need:

I’ve always wanted to see the northern lights. First I searched for tours to see where and when people tend to go. It basically split into Alaska or Scandinavian countries, and it was a lot cheaper for me to go to Alaska. I also found a place with large, skyward facing windows to allow for viewing from within a heated space, because I am not built for cold weather nonsense.

I’m no longer in school, so I like to travel off season. With a range of months in hand (auroras are best viewed from fall to early spring) I checked in with a friend to see if they wanted to come with (they did!), which further narrowed the date range. We found a package at a price point we both liked, booked flights that overlapped as much as possible, shopped for suitable cold weather clothes, figured out accommodations and necessary time off.

The first time I saw the light with my own eyes, I was actually surprised by how faint they were. They showed up way more strongly on my camera. But I really love astrological phenomena, so I spent most of the nights there bumbling around in the dark with my camera, fiddling with the long exposure settings, experimenting with various makeshift tripods (coat rack ended up being my favorite) and just laying back and watching the auroras while my friend was snoring away. I still remember one moment where the aurora was particularly strong, wiggling around in a large stripe across the sky directly above me.