How To Stay Happy While Chasing Your Dreams

Do you push yourself every day, grinding through work like it’s the only way forward? It feels like a loop—work, sleep, repeat—but you keep going, believing that someday, all this effort will finally bring you happiness.

Let me tell you the truth—if you keep living like this, that “one day” will never come.

Just because you’re squeezing every ounce of your mental and physical energy today doesn’t mean you’ll magically be happy tomorrow. That’s not how life works. Tomorrow will come with its own problems, new challenges, and fresh struggles.

Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m not telling you to stop working hard. I work my ass off to achieve my dreams, and I fully support the idea of putting in the effort to reach your goals.

But—There is a “But”

Over the years, I’ve tried to understand this contradiction within myself. I work hard to achieve my goals, but still I can’t believe in working so hard that you sacrifice your happiness for a distant future. After thinking deeply about this, I realized something that

Happiness is a different thing altogether. You can’t be miserable today and expect happiness to magically appear in the future.

Actually, you should find happiness in the journey itself. Happiness shouldn’t be just the destination; it should be woven into every step of the path.

My Type of Happiness

Now, someone might be telling me that,

“My dream is to become a doctor. I know I’ll be the happiest person when I achieve it! But I also know the reality, which is that until then, I have to endure years of sacrifice, giving up sleep, relationships, parties, and fun. So as you say, if I believe in being happy in the present, how can I achieve my goal without being unhappy?”

Here’s my counterargument:

Why does studying have to be miserable?

If you feel unhappy while studying medicine, it means you haven’t fully embraced the philosophy of being a doctor. A doctor’s purpose isn’t just about the title. It’s about helping people live better lives. The more you learn, the better you’ll be at saving lives in critical moments. And whichever things or actions help you to achieve your future goal or future happiest version of yourself (which you believe so), you shouldn’t be doing it with a sad face; you should be happy while doing this.

I know sometimes after a whole day of working, when I come back home late at night, I don’t want to open my laptop and give two more hours to my passion, which is writing and making videos, but I still do it, and the day I fill up my target of working two hours on my dream project, I feel happy; otherwise, a sense of guilt runs through for the next 24 hours until tomorrow night. In that way I make my bigger happiness into small happiness, the happiness I can achieve every day. you may thinking you are sacrificing but I wouldn’t call it sacrifice—I’d rather call it self-isolation. I even wrote an entire article about why isolation is essential for reaching your goals. You can find it here.

So instead of seeing your studies as suffering, see them as a meaningful journey toward your purpose. When you’re grinding late at night, remind yourself, “I’m on the right path, and this effort has meaning.” That shift in mindset alone will make you happier in the process.

Now Let’s dive into three powerful lessons I’ve learned about staying truly happy while chasing the dreams.

1. Own the Philosophy of Your Dream

If you truly understand why you’re chasing a goal, the journey itself won’t feel like suffering. Instead, it will feel meaningful.

A philosophy is like a guiding force—it keeps you grounded when you win and gives your struggle purpose when you lose. It’s what keeps you standing on the battlefield, even when things get tough. If you don’t have a deep connection with your goal, you’ll burn out. But when you truly own its philosophy, every step feels fulfilling, not just the destination.

2. The Goal Is to Be in the Goal

A long time ago, I told a friend

“A good time is not when everything goes right. A good time is a mindset—when you know you won’t stop, even if everything goes wrong.”

That, to me, is the ultimate philosophy of life: to build an unstoppable mindset.You can’t control everything, but you can train your mind to push forward. The key is to shift your focus: stop waiting for things to be perfect and start making your resilience the real goal.

You already know why you’re fighting. Now, let’s learn how to be happy while in the battlefield.

3. The Golden Ratio of Happiness

Six years ago, I started reading The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci and learned about the Golden Ratio—a mathematical pattern found in nature, art, and even the human body. Da Vinci discovered it while studying anatomy, and it fascinated me.

But what struck me the most was this thought, which is surprisingly not related to the context of the book. A thought like—

“To understand the world, you don’t have to go far. You just need to understand yourself.”

Not just who you are, but why you feel the way you do. All the emotions of yours: why you feel sad, why you feel love, why you feel anger.

Once you understand your own emotions, you start understanding others. And when you understand how people think, you stop feeling pressured to live by their expectations.

That is the golden rule of happiness: to know yourself and follow your own path.

A Harsh Lesson from My Journey

Now, let’s end this article with a raw and real story from my life.

I never finished reading The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I sold it to buy food. You might be thinking I might be exaggerating the story; haha, I really don’t.

Back then, I had just started my own coffee shop. After working five years in the restaurant industry, I thought it was time to chase my dream and own my own place.

I was inspired by one of Jack Ma’s quotes.

“Before 25, take as many risks as possible. You have your whole life to recover.”

I was 24. I thought, “This is my time to take a risk.”

So, I invested everything—my savings and a loan from a friend—into a partnership business. But soon, I realized we had spent too much on decoration and had no cash flow to keep the business running.

One day, after paying all the bills, I had no money left—not even for food.

That night, I was sitting in my café, reading Da Vinci’s book, when a Chinese businessman walked in. He ordered coffee, saw the book in my hands, and asked if he could buy it from me. Because if he didn’t buy it now, maybe he would not buy this book in his. He is so busy that he knows he will forget about this book after a few hours.

At first, I said no because I haven’t read it yet.

But then, he started offering double the price.

Then triple.

Then four times the price.

At that moment, I thought, “If I sell this, I can eat for a week.”

So, I sold it.

I told myself I would buy it again soon.

It’s been six years. I never bought the book again.

Not because I couldn’t afford it—but because life moved on. My priorities changed. My reading list has changed because my dream has shifted.

My Final Realization

If you keep waiting for ‘one day’ to be happy, that day may never come.Happiness is not in the future. It’s in every single day—if you choose to see it.

So stop living for some distant moment when everything will be perfect. Life will always change. Your dreams, your struggles, your priorities—everything shifts over time.

But happiness? That’s something you can find today. Right now.

The real question is: Are you willing to look for it?

Photo: Freepik

Do you prefer watching videos instead of reading? A good news for you, you can watch it from below!

Want to know more about me? How do I hack the hurdle and try to live a meaningful life? I am welcoming you to my Journal of Thought. Please click here to visit the page.

And thank you for all the support and love.

you may also like to read