Always find the direct route. Look for the shortest path between A—where you are—and B—where you want to be. I tend to fill my problems with unneeded complexity and junk that just takes up space. Most problems don’t need an elaborate solution. Most problems are simple.

I knew I wanted freedom. Not freedom to travel. I still don’t go many places. Not freedom to work whenever I wanted. I still work set hours during the day. I simply wanted the freedom to make those decisions myself. I wanted to live a life where nobody could make a claim on my time without my approval. I was also realizing I wanted to do something

I have since come to believe that the true definition of “procrastination” is “assuming I will be less stupid and lazy tomorrow than I am today.”

In my consulting, I was so used to cutting ideas off at the knees before they even got started that I never thought to consider what would happen if everything went right…what it would be like to focus on realizing the big goal instead of worrying about the little bugs that would come up as I was moving toward it.

Jason Fried wrote a story for Inc. titled “How to Get Good at Making Money.”

By relaxing and trusting the experts, all I had to do was show up and do the work.

“Make a worry list,” he said. “What’s a worry list?” I asked. “Exactly what it sounds like. Make a list of every single thing you’re worried about. From the big, truly scary things, to the small, mundane things. Get it all out and onto paper. Then, once it’s all out, look at the list and promise yourself that you will take care of everything on

“Failure is an event, not a person.”—Zig Ziglar

Whether it’s needing to pay your taxes, washing the dishes, or a marriage that is on the rocks. List it all out. The list must be exhaustive. If something pops in your head, put it down. There is no filter here. Second, write at the bottom of the sheet of paper, “All of these things are important and I promise to concern, worry, and fear over them