Your life is purchased by where you spend your attention. - James Clear

Emotions drive behavior. Every decision is an emotional decision at some level. Whatever your logical reasons are for taking action, you only feel compelled to act on them because of emotion. In fact, people with damage to emotional centers of the brain can list many reasons for taking action but still will not act because they do not have emotions to drive them. This is why craving comes before response. The feeling comes first, and then the behavior.

Be forgiving with your past self. What's done is done. Take the lessons with you and release the guilt.

Be strict with your present self. Win the moment in front of you right now.

Be flexible with your future self. There are many paths to success. You don't need life to be a certain way to live well.

A recipe for getting more out of what you read:

Start more books. Quit most of them. Read the great ones twice.