This time of year, we put a lot of time and intention into thinking about our future. We set resolutions for the year, goals, and start to envision the things we’d love to happen to have a better life.

Perhaps you’re thinking about more travel in your life, improving your finances, focusing on your health, or adding more adventure to your day to day living. Whatever your goals or dreams, there are simple actions you can take to get on the path to accomplishing them.

In this article, I’m sharing with you two steps to creating a better life. Start implementing them today. Before you start, take a look around you and ask yourself what you’d like to improve. Do you feel like you are in a rut? Stuck in the ho-hum of habits that aren’t serving you? Need a new environment? New friends? Start to make a list.

Step 1: Take Initiative.

The first step in getting out of the rut is to stop making excuses and start planning the actions to make the change. You can improve your life starting today. How do I know? I know because I and others have done it. There will always be obstacles, like “no time”, “no money”, “no plan”, etc. When you really think about it though, you’ve created time and money for other things. Choose one thing you want to change and create a plan to accomplish it. Put time on your calendar each day that you will dedicate to do this. You’ll see how amazing it is when you are in motion on accomplishing something great!.

Step 2: Do It Anyways.

The second step to getting out of the rut is step out in faith and, as the Nike commercial says, “Just do it”. Yes, you’ll probably have thoughts like, “what if this doesn’t work?”, “is it worth it?”, etc. Ignore them and do it anyways. There is no time like the present to change course. You might not succeed the first time, but you must keep trying. Anything great comes with persistence.  Albert Einstein once said “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

This is the zest of life! Remember when you were a child? You would climb that tree or ride a bike for the first time without any doubts as to actually doing it. Have that same “go get ’em” attitude and apply it to your life now.

You will be glad you did!

So step out. Take a chance, and as William Durant, the founder of General Motors said, “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.“