We don’t get up enough to face the everyday challenges of the career we’ve chosen for ourselves. I see it all the time. And I always say, if you can’t get up, GET OUT!!

Get out and find a career that is more stimulating and motivating for you…one that will help you reach your desired goals. However if – and that’s a big ‘IF’ – the job you’re already in happens to be the right job, and you are just one of those lazy people waiting to win the lottery or waiting for somebody to drop a million bucks into your lap, WAKE UP! It’s not going to happen!!

Collecting a paycheck just to get by will not give you fulfillment…not now, and not later in life. Growing up in New Jersey, I noticed from a very young age that most of my friend’s parents and my parent’s friends hated what they did for a living. I watched them come home from work day after day, miserable about what they did. I was determined to never let that happen to me.

Fulfillment comes through activating something I’ve written about before: your Reticular Activating System (RAS). Set goals for yourself. Then repeat those goals over and over again to yourself, almost like you’re trying to program your mind. Come up with a plan about how to reach those goals. Then repeat that plan over and over again. Just when you’re about to achieve those goals, forget them…and set new, more ambitious goals!!

Your career and your life in general should be about never being satisfied. You should constantly challenge yourself to be better, challenge yourself to inspire others to greatness, challenge yourself to give back and help make this world a better place. Do you think I got to where I am today by sitting back and being content with what I had already achieved? Do you think I waited for the next big thing to pass my way and hope I could grab onto it? No way! Long before I achieved the goal at hand, I was already thinking about my next bigger, better goal.

Despite what some people may think, I don’t live in a glass bubble. Every day in my life is not perfect (just ask my wife!). But I will tell you that I count every day as a blessing and make the most out of it. And I try my best to live by the examples that I give. This is not dress rehearsal. It’s not practice. None of us get a second chance to go back and start over again. This is the real world. The work you do can pay off in dividends; and the work you don’t do can haunt you for the rest of your life. I don’t know about you, but the first option seems like a no brainer to me.

Let’s make it count!!