No matter how you define success, it requires hard work, disappointment, rejection and lots of failing. With all the hard stuff you'll endure, it's hard to imagine how to stay happy along the way. You can. The solution lies at the intersection of Eastern and Western philosophies and requires three simple, but profound, mindset changes.
1. Find Peace
Don't fall for the lie that something external will make you happy. Once your basic needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, etc.) are met, nothing else will make you happier. Money, friends, husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids, jewelry, cars or even ice cream will not make you happier. Happiness is always there. If you can't feel it, you're looking in the wrong place. Step one to success is realizing that it won't make you happier.
Disclaimer: Ice cream is delicious and will make you happy until the bowl is empty.
2. Become Devoted
Decide what success is for you and become devoted to it. Make it something you believe in with everything you've got. Make your devotion so strong you can't imagine it any other way. Believe in it so strongly that it's worth all the hard work, rejection and failure. Success is going to take a lot of time. The hours in your day are limited, so it better be worth more than the time you will spend on it.
Exception: Devotion to celebrity gossip doesn't count.
3. Take Responsibility
Take any action necessary to achieve success. You can only make this choice if you've found peace and are devoted. Peace takes away the fear of loss and devotion takes away indifference. Now when something gets in your way, you'll figure out a way to get past it. That's what taking responsibility means.
Small request on behalf of humanity: Be nice to people along the way.
Succeeding is hard. No matter what you want, parts of it are going to suck. The difference between success and settling for less is how you deal with the parts that suck. Peace, devotion and responsibility will get you there.