Sometimes you just need to get punched in the face to wake up. For too many days in a row, I went to work doing the same thing over and over like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day.

There are two routes to achievement in your life. The first is conformity in which you follow the crowd down a conventional path and maintain the status quo. The other is originality, which is the road less traveled in which you champion new ideas that go against grain but make thing better.

Over the past few years I have been living comfortably with conformity and not challenging myself to risk.  Because I have built a few companies that have been successful I didn’t feel the need to dare to think differently. My management style and philosophies have created cultures where employees are engaged and invested in the company’s success. By not allowing my true nature and beliefs to come into actions I realized I was not being the leader or entrepreneur I wanted to be instead I was costing myself personal growth and mental freedom. .

Here are a few takeaways I hope inspire you to make a change in your life to move past the person you are now and to take a chance to become the person you are truly destined to be.

Be uncomfortable at least once per day. That could mean doing something that you don’t have confidence in or something that you just seem to always put off one more day. Lean in and just do that one f$%king thing and you will be a better person. I promise.

Don’t let other people control your path. People will line up around the block to tell you why you can’t do something, and all the reasons why you or your idea will fail. Just smile and do the work needed to prove that you can do anything you set your mind to accomplish. I didn’t say prove them wrong. One of the great things I have learned is what other people think doesn’t matter when it comes to personal growth.

Use negativity as jet fuel. When someone makes a choice to attack you or your business, you have two choices. First, you can play their game, which does nothing more than distract you, or you can just take all of their negativity and refocus it to your advantage. This is how Akido masters use the energy of their opponent’s movement for their own sheer dominance during a confrontation. Do the latter.

Mountains aren’t climbed in minutes. Doing anything great will take an enormous amount of your time and energy. Just when you think you are at the summit, you will realize that there is another mountain behind the one you just climbed challenging you. I believe that the real love is in the journey, not the destination.

Turn failure into your friend. To truly be successful you have to have failure on your path. For some ventures, it will take a ton of failures before you find the breakthrough that changes everything for you or your business. One thing that has always resonated with me is the concept of learning to callous your mind. Train your mind to turn failures into learning experiences.

Lay one brick at a time. I meet plenty of people that tell me that they have so much to do and don’t know where to start or can’t find the time. Being overwhelmed is real, and it can paralyze you. I want you to go to the nearest giant brick building in your town and look at it really hard and think about this. That building was built one brick at a time. Someone laid one brick next to another brick over a long period of time until, guess what? They had a giant f$%king building in front of them. This is how businesses get built and fortunes get made.

Now, I greet every day as a true gift as well as an opportunity to pursue my dreams and aspirations to build technology that empowers others to become better at their jobs. No matter what has befallen you up until this moment, only you can decide what your future will be.

Are you willing to move ahead no matter what you face? Are you willing to leave your comfort zone to purse what truly inspires you?

Everything you want in life is waiting for you. What will you do about it?