Taking steps towards your ideal day
Remember your ideal day? (Go check out the exercise if you haven't yet!... 
)
All of the hard work you're doing is to earn your ideal day. When is the last time you compared your actual day to your ideal day?
What are you doing right now that's not "ideal"?
What will it take to make that change?
Surprisingly, I've found that sometimes it takes... nothing! Sometimes there's nothing really holding you to your non-ideal day but habit and stubbornness.
The other day I realized that one of the major components of my ideal day was "freedom to chase inspiration": to work on whatever I felt like working on.
Instead, in my real life, I hold myself rigidly to my priorities and timelines, refusing to budge.
Finally, I stopped to ask myself... why?
I have deadlines, certainly, but no one is holding a gun to my head... why can't I carve out some time to chase inspiration? So I did. The rule was that as long as what I wanted to do was PRODUCTIVE in some way (ie, not just watching TV) I was allowed an hour to do it. That way I have a piece of my ideal day, and I won't fall too far off track.
So far the problem has been keeping myself to just one hour (last time went 1:46 according to my timer...) but in the days since I've found it WAY easier to focus on my goals, and it even unblocked me in a few places where I was having difficulty!
(I should note that I'm not some kind of souless machine... of course I have unproductive time where I am a useless, procrastinating pile of poop. The difference is when I waste time that way I feel guilty, for this 'inspiration time' I'm NOT allowing myself guilt. Telling myself it's an okay use of time is an important step.)
REMEMBER: the goal is happiness. It's pointless to spend all your time fighting for an imaginary future if you never actually build up the courage to claim parts of your ideal day. Who knows... your "real day" may become your ideal sooner than you think!