Stop spending your weekends sitting on the couch and watching the same Netflix show! Things aren’t supposed to be this way. Life is supposed to feel different! You’re not supposed to spend it doing the same things on repeat. The dangerous thing about comfort is that it can lead to complacency. And when you become complacent, you stop growing. You stop contributing to the lives of the people around you.

1. Stop Making Excuses

The first step to making the most of your life is to stop making excuses. People have a tendency to keep pushing the timeline further out. They’ll say “I’ll start tomorrow, or the day after, or maybe next month.” Take the steps you need to realize your goals today! If you’re reading this, the time to start is now.

2. Raise Your Standards

To get where you need to go, you need to raise your standards. Stop setting the bar so low! Now is the time to shoot for the moon. Along the way you’re going to fail, but that’s ok because that’s what it takes to develop a winning mentality. Winners learn from their failures. They use failure to reignite the fire inside them and build the mental fortitude they need to succeed in the future.

3. Measure From Right Now

Where you’re at now doesn’t matter. Your age doesn’t matter. Choose today as your starting point and measure your success from there. And remember — things don’t change overnight! Little by little you get where you need to be from dedication and hard work. It’s easy to get discouraged when you see how much more other people have achieved, but remember that you’re only seeing the final product. They got to where they are today by going through a lot of the same struggles you’re going through.

4. Don’t Rely On Luck

Don’t be upset just because the things you want didn’t just magically materialize in front of you. You can’t rely on luck to get what you want from life! People who get lucky can’t truly appreciate what they have, because they don’t understand what it takes to earn things.

5. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Life starts outside of your comfort zone! When you feel uncomfortable, know that you’re in growth mode. When you feel different than you did the day before, know that you’re alive.