Daily consistency is more important than any other strategy for making progress in life. The mind needs to be exercised to gain strength. It needs to be worked consistently to grow and develop over time.

How many times have you tried to start (insert well intentioned habit) but end up skipping it after a week or two because your mind, not your body, told you that you were too tired?

It's your positive daily rituals that prove your mental fortitude and move you in the direction of your dreams over the long-term. Life is short. We can live it lost in thought, or we can choose to be present as life unfolds around us.

The day-to-day of life can slip through your fingers when you're overly critical of your current circumstances.

You're trying your best, giving it your all but the recognition you deserve goes unnoticed. It’s a common feeling that keeps many of us up at night. Ye ol' boss doesn't appreciate the sacrifices you've made and continue to make. He doesn't take the time to point out the things you do that go above and beyond. He manages, rather than leads. He instills fear rather than inspire, because it gets short-term results.

It's no wonder you're frustrated, feel trapped and don't have the energy to make changes in your life.

Many organizations operate from this level of energy because it feels like they get results. But in reality, they lose people like you, fed up with being treated like shit. When work feels like an I-win-you-lose scenario, your life takes on an energy of being in constant conflict, both internally and externally. It feels like an Avengers movie of endless battles.

When our core thought is conflict, our core emotion is anger, which results in defiance of what we're told we have to do. The resentment starts to seep in through the cracks.

We question why we took the job and beat ourselves up for thinking this job would be different.

We feel a sense of hatred for our current circumstances, wishing things could be less complicated.

Why can't it just be how I thought it was going to be?

We'll go through the motions of blaming the company, a crappy manager, or the role not being what we thought it would be.

But really, we're upset with ourselves in this moment.

The problem with the blame-game is our sense of ownership in the situation gets tossed out the window. We feel like we don't have choices. That's where those feelings of stress and frustration settle in like a morning fog. Before we know it, we've lost the focus of our why. We feel emotionally trapped and further spiral down the slide of disappointment.

Believe it or not, these emotions serve a purpose.

It means you care. It means you have a fight deep inside you. You have a willingness to move past win-lose scenarios. As a Coach, I help you identify and respond to these emotions in a way that serves you. This process helps you take responsibility for what you're feeling and thinking. This step is liberating as it helps you remove conflict caused by the assumptions and interpretations that have slipped into your narrative. Growth comes from challenge.

Prove to yourself, in dozens of little ways that you have the strength to get in the ring of life on a daily basis.

It can be as simple as setting an intention each morning. What do you want your day to look like? How will you respond if things don't go as planned? What needless conflict can you avoid? What are you making harder than it needs to be?

Your life is a work in progress.

You weren't born perfect but with work, and dedication, you can get a little better every day. There is a real delight in this progress. Follow those questions this week, and see how you get a little better as each day passes.