So with this principle in mind, I want to share five weak points we've seen plaguing thousands of our coaching clients and course members over the past decade — little things people do every day that stop them from moving forward with their lives:

1. You change nothing and expect different results. There's a saying that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you want to improve yourself, you have to try new things to see what works and what doesn't. If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. Often the difference between a successful person and a person who struggles to implement positive changes is not one's superior abilities, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take calculated risks, and to take steady steps forward. In other words, some people sit and wait for the magic beans to arrive while the rest of us just get up and get to work.
    
2. You keep waiting for the right time. You cannot wait for the perfect time; it will never come. If you think now feels like the wrong time, think again. It's just uncertainty messing with your mind. Most of the time you must simply dare to jump. Today is the first day of a new beginning — the conception of a new life. The next nine months are all yours. You can do with them as you please. Make them count. Because a new person is born in nine months. The only question is: Who do you want that person to be? Right now is the time to decide.
    
3. Your planning and focus are in disarray. Do you plan your days? Did you wake up today knowing what you wanted to accomplish? If not, maybe it's time you do. Trust me, a year from now you will wish you had managed your time properly today. What would you regret not accomplishing this year?
   
   What would you regret doing an abysmal job at, simply because you waited until the last minute and then rushed around doing 20 things at once? Create a plan to accomplish these things sanely, one at a time. Planning doesn't have to be long and tedious; it can just be a 60-second process. Every night, think about three small things that you want to accomplish tomorrow and write them down. When you wake up in the morning, review this list before you do anything else, and then take the first step. Let this be one of your daily rituals. And if you find yourself being lured to do something that's not on that short list of three things, bring yourself back and focus.
    
4. You make the rejections of yesterday the focal point of today. NOT believing that you CAN is the biggest trap of them all. If you don't know your own greatness is possible, you won't bother attempting anything great. Period. All too often we let the rejections of our past dictate every move we make thereafter. We literally do not know ourselves to be any better than what some opinionated person or narrow circumstance once told us was true. Of course, this old rejection doesn't mean we aren't good enough; it means the other person or circumstance failed to align with what we have to offer. It means we have more time to improve our thing — to build upon our ideas, to perfect our craft, and indulge deeper into the work that moves us. And that's exactly what you need to do right now.
    
5. You refuse to accept necessary risks. Living is about learning as you go. Living is risky business. Every decision, every interaction, every step, every time you get out of bed in the morning, you take a small risk. To truly live is to know you're getting up and taking that risk, and to trust yourself to take it. To not get out of bed, clutching to illusions of safety, is to die slowly without ever having truly lived. Think about it: If you ignore your instincts and let shallow feelings of uncertainty stop you, you will never know anything for sure, and in many ways, this unknowing will be worse than finding out your instincts were wrong. Because if you were wrong, you could make adjustments and carry on with your life without looking back and wondering what might have been.

And of course, if you're struggling with any of this, know that you are not alone. Many of us are right there with you, working hard to feel better, think more clearly, and get our lives back on track.