The climb to success is challenging; it often makes you feel like you’re never going to get there.

Maybe you’re feeling stagnant, or your personal life is frustrating you, your relationships are suffering, your mental and physical health have dwindled, you feel… agitated by everything.

You’re not achieving your goals or fulfilling your potential, so you’re unhappy as a result.

Before you get up and quit, understand that this happens to everyone. Everyone gets to a place of uncertainty and doubt.

If you keep pushing and believe in yourself, you will eventually achieve your goals and be the best version of yourself.

However, here are a few good habits you can utilize daily to improve your overall life and help reach your goals when it gets hard to continue.

Spend quality time with yourself.

Taking the initiative to be alone is an essential part of understanding yourself, tapping into your creative side, building your mental strength, and living a rich and full life.

When you eliminate outside influence, you’re able to hone in on what you truly want for yourself and create a plan to get there with no distractions.

For example, my quality time with myself consists of journaling in the mornings, where I’m able to sit in complete and utter silence and just listen to my thoughts. Or, I like to take walks in the afternoons by the beach. All I hear is the waves crashing, and my brain stumbling over its own words. I don’t have my phone on me; I don’t listen to music or any podcasts; I’m simply alone with my own thoughts.

Alone time is your opportunity to be your truest self. Do whatever you want to do, figure things out without anybody hovering over you.

In the words of Maya Angelo:

“In the silence, we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves, and in the quietude, we may even hear the voice of God.”

Read nonfiction and fiction.

In an article written for The Harvard Business Review about why fiction reading can benefit people, writer Christine Seifert says reading literary fiction helps people develop empathy, the theory of mind, and critical thinking.

High-level business leaders have long touted the virtues of reading. Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, spends most of his day reading and recommends reading 500 pages a day.

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban says he reads more than three hours a day. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, says he learned to build rockets by reading books.

The majority of business visionaries who extol the virtues of reading often recommend nonfiction.

For example, Buffet recommended 19 books in 2019; all of them were nonfiction.

Of the 94 books Bill Gates recommended over a seven-year period, nine of them were fiction.

However, one reason fiction does work so well in the workplace is that the characters, plots, and settings in foreign locales help anchor difficult discussions. The narrative allows people to work through sensitive and nuanced issues openly and honestly.

Fiction is a uniquely powerful way to understand others, tap into creativity, and exercise your brain.

I read primarily nonfiction now, but I like to throw in a few nonfiction books into the mix as well. It helps me detach and unwind.

Take care of your mental health and physical health.

Mental and physical health are equally important components of overall health. And both are vital to living a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

It’s not just about the food you consume; it’s also about what you allow your mind to consume. Our mental health encompasses our psychological, emotional, and social well-being.

This means that your mental health impacts how you feel, behave, and think every single day. It also contributes to your decision-making process, how you cope with stress, and how you relate to others in your life.

There’s a variety of things you can do to improve your mental health every day, you don’t need to go out of your way, but small things can truly make the biggest difference.

Things like exercising, eating well, being social with others, as well as taking time for yourself, being grateful, and getting good quality sleep, all of those things can be extremely helpful in boosting your overall health.

Stop making sacrifices for temporary gains.

This morning you woke up, made coffee, and debated whether or not you should get to work or watch some TV.

Fall is here; all you really wanted to do was cozy up on the couch with a warm blanket and watch something good.

I get it; I’ve been there. Actually, I wake up now with the desire to lay on the couch all day and watch Harry Potter, especially when the weather is gloomy.

Instant gratification is seductive and extremely satisfying, but not when it is at the expense of your long term goals.

You need to stop sacrificing substantive happiness that will bring you consistent and lasting success for superficial, temporary happiness, which will ultimately fade quickly and extend unhappiness.

You know what the right thing to do is, it’s to wake up, make coffee, and get to work. So do it. You know that going out every single day will only satisfy you for the moment. So stop doing it and start utilizing your weekdays for work.

Leave relaxing for the weekends.

Find the positives despite negative situations.

Don’t let people or life discourage you.

Life will always happen, problems, conflicts, uncomfortable situations, frustrations — you name it.

For example, anytime I would experience a setback, I would dwell on it for weeks. I would wake up feeling happy, then I’d remember whatever setback I had, and I’d have that pit in my stomach again. I’d allow negative things to control my life and perspective, and it took me a long time to realize that by doing that, I was only harming myself and hindering my own success.

Life has its own plan, and all you can do is follow the plan you created for yourself accordingly and hope it pans out the way you want it to.

Keep moving forward, learn to build on your progress, and don’t let people or life get you down.

The majority of your problems are all minor in the grand scheme of things. Focus on the progress, focus on identifying the positives in the negative. Sometimes, the lessons you learn are significantly more valuable than the setback in the first place.