Second Star to the Right

Something happened to me this morning that has not happened to me in a long time: I woke up this morning in a good and confident mood.

Weird, huh?

To what, you may ask, can this seeming miracle be attributed? The Ravishing Mrs. TB returning from her cruise? Possibly - although it was not a conscious thought in the morning. Job? Nope. Sudden financial success? Again, Nope.

Then what happened?

The secret, I think, is that I woke up with a purpose this morning: paint. Yes, not my most favorite task and yes, 4.5 years after moving in, but still, with a purpose, something that needed to get done - and something which had a definitive end result, not a general sort like a job search where things go off into the electronic ether and never return.

The same thought process has occurred, interestingly enough, on Facebook. I have engaged in one of their available games Pirates!, and what I have discovered is (surprisingly) what I knew from playing role playing games: when I have a goal, a set endpoint with defined parameters, an experience level which requires x and y to get to, I hit the mark - every time.

So here's my puzzle: how do I translate this into something I can use in my day to day life? How do I transfer how I work - clearly defined goals with definitive rewards and endpoints - into the non-clearly defined area of life?

I understand how to use the Second Star to the Right -the question is, what is there that makes steering for it so important?