Excellent post and thoughts I have struggled with even this season.

The 2 things that keep me going are
1. Last year I didn't kill a buck and nothing bad happened to me.
2. One year I did lower my "standard" and felt bad for shooting a buck that only made me happy for 15 minutes.

At times I wondered if things had been luck in the past, and if my goals were too high, but I suppose if you are going to dream, dream big.