Character-building before comfort

"Guthlac sought to imitate the virtues of the brethren at Repton: obedience, humility, patience, longsuffering, abstinence, sincerity, temperance, agreeableness."
This is a good list.

If you aim for heaven, you will get the earth thrown in. If you aim for the earth, you will get nothing. The way to aim for heaven is to place character-building first, and these are pretty good characteristics to aim to build. The choice to place character-building first stems from the requirement in Step Three that we be convinced that we have been victims of the delusion that the material world or success in the world's terms will bring about happiness. In recognition of this failure, as demonstrated by the material contained in Steps Four through Six, another path opens up: that of becoming a servant of God, holding nothing back, caring for nothing but serving Him and becoming what He wants us to be.

There are greater things than happiness, and if one seeks those, one finds a happiness greater than what one would previously have defined as such.