What is requires to be successful is prone to interpretation. It is of no importance what others think but rather what you believe is needed to be successful.
If your goal is to become a professional athlete you need to do the activities that will bring you there. Is a professional athlete going out and drink with friends 3 times a week every week? Likely not. Will they go and binch eat every day of the weekend? Likely not. If you do the activities you know is required to reach the goal you set yourself you are moving in the direction of where you want to be. Setting ourselves up for success seems very difficult, yes achieving it will require some hard work. However figuring out what you have to do is the easy part. Many people will be able to answer you what you have to do in order to get a promotion at work. Becoming the person achieving it is something different.
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome. – William James
Everyone will have a difficult task or some obstacles standing in front of them in order to succeed. It is not the level of difficulty that will determine whether or not you succeed at your goal but how your mindset is before you take the first steps. If your goal is to become a wordclass sprinter and you acknowledge to yourself that you will never be competing at a high level you’ll never get there. if however you know that it will be very hard but you are going to give it all and you believe in yourself you could reach your goal. Your mindset is crucial to determine if you will succeed.
People are often focussed around the objectives that others want them to achieve. If you spend your time and effort into achieving their objectives you will do as the please. However to be happy yourself and to be successful in your own eyes you need to complete what you want to. After completing your own goals and being happy because of it others will be happy for you as well. What is success has a different interpretation by different people. However you don’t need to be successful in other people’s eyes, rather in your own eyes. If you know the hard work that you have put into it you know whether or not you should be considered to have accomplished something special.