“This is what you should teach me, how to be like Odysseus – how to love my country, wife and father, and how, even after suffering shipwreck, I might keep sailing on course to those honourable ends.” Seneca, Moral Letters.
Steer your course by your values. Recognise the temptation of seeking instant pleasure at the expense of achieving long-term purpose, and the power of procrastination in the face of the unpleasing but temporary pains and tribulations required on the path to achieving anything you’d call ‘worthwhile’.