You decide, and you're free to do as you see fit, including adjusting the goals or stages to match your experience, that's just first-hand (and second-hand, from others) testimony that you requested. The wealth of literature on the topic is at your disposal.
My recommendations if you'd like to have a skim are Waking Up (Harris), Happiness Hypothesis (Haidt), both of which take a bird's eye view of the practices and try to position it with respect to both personal experience and medical establishment. Haidt is more scientific than Harris, but Harris is much more experienced.
My recommendations if you'd like to have a skim are Waking Up (Harris), Happiness Hypothesis (Haidt), both of which take a bird's eye view of the practices and try to position it with respect to both personal experience and medical establishment. Haidt is more scientific than Harris, but Harris is much more experienced.