Never be content with life as it is. The world is out there, waiting for you to explore it, and if you suddenly become complacent, life will undoubtedly pass you by. You should always have a desire to improve your life, and here are 5 sustainable ways to make sure it’s consistently happening:

1. Get Moving:

People do a lot of talking about the changes they are “going to make in the future.” The more time you waste with this banter, the more you will push off your better future. You need to consciously decide one day to wake up and get moving, with the small and big picture.

2. Be Accountable:

Stop blaming other people for failures and shortcomings. Now that you’re in your 20s, it’s time to take responsibility. You’ll actually find that being accountable is a really rewarding feeling. Once you’ve accepted responsibility for something, it is in your control.

3. Learn From Failures:

Instead of fearing failure, embrace it. Failure is how we learn our most valuable lessons. Any setbacks you experience now – analyze them, and identify what went wrong so you never make those mistakes again.

4. Motivate Yourself:

Whether you’re motivated by food, movies, exercise, or any other type of temptation, set up a reward system for yourself so you feel motivated to get out there and make it happen. No one else is going to reward you the way you deserve to be rewarded. It’s up to you.

5. Just Keep Doing It:

Keep moving forward, no matter what. It’s going to get hard. You need to be aware of the possibility of it getting hard anyway. If you experience a failure, embrace it and climb over it. If you choose to let setbacks stop you right in your tracks, you’re not going to get to the improvement level you’ve been wanting.

Only you are in control of improving your life.