What’s holding you back from doing that thing? My guess is that it’s some form of fear. Having the right amount of fear is healthy and logical. It’s biological and we are hardwired to survive. But fear might also be keeping us playing small. In my experience, and it doesn’t matter what it is— fitness; relationships; growing a business— anything worth doing requires a level of courage, effort, sacrifice and risk that comes with having to pay a price to earn the reward. That is, the rent is due every day for any form of victory big or small. As an example, I just worked on a TV spot with a big consumer brand that went way out of their comfort zone on our creative idea. This took courage and I know it hasn’t been easy for them. That said, the competitive landscape requires breaking away from the herd and being distinct. To break out of being a commodity product and into the category of legitimate brand requires bold moves. Author James Clear writes: "The problem with smart people is they can come up with a good reason for not doing anything. They are smart enough to find the cracks, to foresee the challenges, and to talk themselves out of the idea. They are experts at justifying their lack of courage or lack of action with an intelligent excuse. But there will always be reasons to not do something, and this is particularly true of anything worth doing. We value those moments in which we overcame challenge, not those in which we avoided it. Ultimately, action is a choice. The choice to emphasize the reasons for doing it despite the reasons you have for avoiding it." What’s holding you back from doing that thing?

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