Looking back, I’ve realized that my happiness is almost entirely a function of my belief in my trajectory. It’s never been about my current coordinates, but about the direction I’m headed.
You make a decision, and then you show up. Every day you do the work and place a dot on the map. A single dot is just a data point, but when you string those dots together, you get a trend line. If that line is pointing in the right direction, you feel a bit more at peace with where you are, even if the coordinates haven’t shifted significantly yet.
We’re not wired to be satisfied with static achievement. A lot of psychology circles around the same idea: the progress principle, hedonic adaptation, or self-determination theory’s need for competence. For me, the most interesting part is what happens next.
I’ve noticed that once you trust your trajectory, you stop burning energy on second-guessing, and that surplus tends to come back as momentum and serendipity. Once the trend line starts leaning the right way and you keep adding dots, moving forward starts to feel almost inevitable.
Pick a direction. Generate trajectory.