You know what you need to do, but you keep not doing it. Here’s why and what to do about it

The secret? Make peace with failure.

Most people have goals to get ahead and even know, in principle, what steps to take to achieve them, but just keep not taking those steps. For instance, a successful designer does beautiful art on the side and wants to put it “out there” to see if he has something people will buy. Or a corporate leader has left her role to be an independent consultant and needs to communicate with more people about the value she brings. Both the artist-entrepreneur and the budding consultant know about the steps involved in marketing and sales, but they just keep not taking those steps, at least not enough of them. Something is holding them back.