When we drop our preconceived notions of who we should be, we release the strain of being alive. If you free yourself from the mundane struggle of getting ahead, you will be infinitely happier. Choose to see yourself as a river, flowing through the human experience. Sometimes the rapids pick up, and sometimes they are nonexistent. Don’t try to compete with your friends and peers, for their path is different than yours. 

We all travel this journey at a different pace, enjoy yourself because that is really all that matters. If you value your own happiness above all else, nothing will matter. It is through understanding happiness, that we achieve the flow state. Life will pass you by if you focus on what you don’t have, rather than what you do. 

This isn’t to say don’t be ambitious, strive for greatness. If you fall, pick yourself back up. You have to be your own bootstraps in life, because no one else will do it for you. Cherish those who support you and remove those who do not. Life is too short to spend it being brought down by those closest to you. If you do not tend your garden, you will find that there are snakes.