As long as you are still in the game, you have a chance to win. If you want to win, you keep playing even if you are the underdog, even if you are currently working from a deficit, even if you want to quit and cry. To win, keep playing.

“Mistakes were made” and usually by ourselves. It doesn’t mean we are finished. It only means we need to reassess the situation, come up with plan to overcome the current situation, and get back to the hard work of making our dreams come true. Action will take you places wishes can’t go.

When life smacks you in the face and you eat the whole cake or take out your shins on the box jump, the only thing to do is know that tomorrow is coming and you have the chance to make better decisions and return to the path. Your dream lives over there. You can reach it if you don’t think of a temporary setback as a total defeat.

Any project with large aims and goals will have to include setbacks because they happen even in the best of times. The only thing to do when you run into one is to regroup, square your shoulders, and remember that your goals and dreams are worth it. Don’t give up because all that means is you will have to start over again later.

You don’t lose fifty pounds overnight. You don’t just magically clean and jerk 200 pounds. You build up to it, small bit by small bit. Incremental success is the only way to get to that large goal. You don’t just wake up totally different. You move, inch by inch, until you end up in a different place, a better place if you planned well, or a worse one if you didn’t.

The allure of the easy. The desire to throw in the towel. The wish to quit. These all pop up from time to time. They are lies. They are momentary lapses. They are to be ignored. Move forward. That’s where the rest of your life is. Go find it.

The key to success is planning. It doesn’t show up without some effort on your part. If you want something in the future, you have to start planning for it today. That means you have a plan, and then the hard part – you work your plan. If that is getting you closer to your goal, keep going. If not, revise your plan and try that. Keep at it. Your future self deserves it.

Remember when you were learning to walk? It was so hard. You fell down. Often. Really often. There were tears involved. And yet, today, you walk around without thought. Everything that is easy today was once difficult. Remember that as you struggle with the difficulties of the now.

If you don’t give it your best shot, how will you ever know if you could have gotten it, whatever it is? When you scale back or make excuses about why you simply can’t, you steal your future from yourself. You take your dreams and set them aside. The future is coming. Prepare for it. Find your dreams.

Things are hard. Well, the best things are. Temptation is always at the edges of reality, trying to get your attention. But your commitment to yourself and your goals remains at the center of your future. You are trying to get to a place you have never been before. Give yourself the credit you have earned on your journey to your dreams.