Making progress is hard. It’s a lot easier to do nothing. But in nature, everything is either growing or dying, and we are no exception to this rule.

There’s no such thing as staying the same. There is only progress or regression. This applies to your health, your work, and your relationships. If you aren’t working to make them better, then they’re getting worse.

Don’t coast. Put in the work. Be better every day.

There are a lot of times in life when it feels like you don’t have a choice. The reality is usually that you have a choice, you just really don’t like any of the options. But that is still a choice.

Even if all available options seem terrible to you, you still have a choice between those terrible options. When you find yourself in that situation, recognize that you actually do have a choice, albeit an awful one. Then try to pick the least terrible option available to you. You’ll feel better about the outcome if you recognize your role in it.

Twenty years ago today, I was red-faced, steam coming out of my ears mad. It had been a year since my promotion, when I was promised that if I increased the profits on the 2 departments I was taking over, they would give me a cut. March 11, 1999, my boss told me there would be no bonus.

I knew in that moment that I was going to quit that job and start my own business. I had proved that I could make money for someone else, so I decided I would make money for myself. I had a mortgage, a baby girl, and a wife without a job, but I knew what I had to do.

Twenty years later, my business is thriving, that baby girl is a junior at Ohio State, and my life couldn’t be better. I saw that I needed a change in my life, so I made it happen.

There are so many moments in life where we want things to be different, and in a lot of them, we don’t have any power to make a change. But when you do have the power, make the change! Don’t let fear of the unknown, or fear of failure, hold you back from creating the life that you want.

Logically, there were many more reasons against quitting my job and starting a business than there were reasons for doing it. But I did it anyway, because for my own long term happiness, that was what I needed.

Be afraid. There’s nothing wrong with that. But don’t let the fear hold you back from creating the life that you want. Make the change. Live your best life. Don’t wait.