Many people step into things either ill-prepared or unplanned, whether it’s a job, career, entrepreneurship or role.

As a result, they get stuck, as things don’t move as they imagined. The other problem they encounter is that they get stuck there for too long.

They don’t exit it thinking about what others will think, how they would face people around them, etc. Their indecisiveness causes more trouble for them and their loved ones!

Here’s the thing—nobody is watching you, and nobody is following you around taking notes. If you mess up, it’s not that big of a deal. Ditto if you do or say something stupid. Feel free to act on what is important to you. You can save your energies and experiences for something better.

“Is my salary raise going to be better than last year?”

“Can I work little less than I have been working throughout the past several months?”

“Can I get the promotion to the next level?”

These are the questions mostly people ask during the performance review. I don’t say these are not important. I understand work is a big piece of our life and work must be rewarding enough. In my approach, I’ve always been a bit vocal about having balance in life and make sure that you don’t look at economic gain alone as sole motivator.

I have seen that people who are fulfilled on a much broader basis, having real balance between faith, family, friends and hobbies live really well. They completely, single-mindedly focus on and get their value out of work.

We, as a society, have started gauging our progress in improving our economic situation. When we look at our kids, we ask, “Are they going to do economically better than we’ve done?” I think we need to pursue and tell people around us that socioeconomic wealth is not the only most important measure of personal happiness; having a sense of fulfilment certainly is.

I was badly stuck in my life. There were problems, but there were no answers coming. It felt like a never-ending road.

I went to my father for advice. Without giving ears to what I was going through, he said ‘take off.’

Both figuratively and literally, take. Off.

Take off in the direction of your dreams.

Take off and explore the world because getting out of your comfort zone will help you find your voice, your values, and the very things that make you you.

Take off over that hypothetical ledge, because you’ll be surprised at how much you’re capable of.

The rest is history — whenever I get stuck, I remember what my father advised, and I take off without thinking too much about where it will land.

You don’t lack creative ideas, you lack the focus to move forward

He asked, “I see there seems to be a mysterious conspiracy in favor of our competitors and it seems I am just unlucky.”

I replied, “To maximize the probability of success, it is imperative to set yourself up with an environment where you can focus on your goals and eliminate paths that push you to easily allow you to quit. Most things don’t show up the results because we quit at 90%.”

I must tell you, “Just move forward. It just needs one push with full focus and force.”