If you think about it, men who come of age without being nurtured and without learning how to nurture themselves have a hole they carry around. Some people fill this hole with drugs or alcohol; others fill it with violence. But it gets filled, one way or another.

As President Teddy Roosevelt put it: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Pause to celebrate your success and accomplishments of hard work so you can find happiness along the journey as well. Don’t be so concerned about the end goal that you don’t enjoy all the little wonderful achievements on your way to the ultimate win.

Once I have chosen my top three goals for each of the Three Players, I ask myself three crucial questions: What do I want? Answering this question forces me to bring clarity to my vision and the end I have in mind. Why do I want it? Answering this question helps me reconnect to my Meaningful Mission and tap into my deep motivation to take action. Sometimes when I ask this question, I struggle to answer, which may indicate I need to ask myself another question: Do I really want it? What’s the next step? Answering this question causes me to focus on the next practical move I need to take to move forward. I don’t have to know what I will do six months from now, only what I need to do next to keep moving forward.