Development is a long-term game, for which you need a long-term perspective.

Imagine your personal and professional growth as a growing empire. And remember: an empire without a strong foundation will inevitably fall.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it’s foundation probably wasn’t, either – so, when building your own foundation for success, be prepared for it to take a while. There’s no quick way to the top. Doing something outrageous or dangerous may make your YouTube video go viral, but that notoriety will vanish just as quickly as it appeared. In contrast, if you build your YouTube subscriber base over time, through hard, honest work, you’ll create a loyal following.

To succeed, you’ll also need to establish a foundation of knowledge, tools and personal skills. That means investing time, effort and money in yourself. As her success grew, the author invested money in a support team, starting with a manager – and this foresight paid off, enabling her to make more videos, land more brand deals and increase revenue.

Not only is having a strong foundation necessary for success, but it also frees you from stressful must-win situations.

Once you have a foundational track record of success, no single accomplishment, and no single failure, will make or break your career. This decreases stress – a known performance inhibitor – and makes it easier to relax and focus on performing at your optimal level.

Stress can definitely inhibit performance, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it entirely, since people with stress-free lives are much likelier to procrastinate. The best way to make your life just stressful enough is to set deadlines for yourself.

We all know that procrastination is detrimental to productivity, and yet many of us still tend to postpone things until the eleventh hour. This is where deadlines can save the day.

To illustrate the importance of deadlines, let’s take a look at one of the author’s dreams. She wants to be an actress. The author knew that the best way for her to achieve this goal was to be in Los Angeles, so she set herself a deadline: move there by December 1, 2015. This self-imposed deadline propelled her into action and she made the move.

Success isn’t going to happen overnight, so start setting deadlines and buckle up for the long haul.