When you’re an entrepreneur, reacting to problems and finding solutions is your day job.

Every problem can mean life or death for your business. And so, you get used to pulling out your sword and fighting whatever fight comes up that day.

But in other areas of life—where it’s not life or death—we get soft. What’s another day of just kicking the can? We forget to take risks and instead fall back on the luxury of making excuses.

As a follow up to my last article, How Successful People Prioritize, let’s take a look at how successful people take action.

They use their constraints as fuel, not as excuses.

When we finally develop a clear vision and are excited to take the first step towards our goals… why is it that 99% of us freeze?

“I don’t have enough time.”

“I don’t have enough money.”

“I don’t have enough experience.”

They sound like valid excuses. And if there’s no fire burning under us—aka. if we’ve gotten soft—we’ll let them remain excuses.

Successful people choose to leverage the power of constraints to accelerate their efforts. They accept a lack of time and use it to get smarter with their hours. They accept a lack of money and get more creative in their approach. They accept a lack of experience and invent a new way of doing things.

There is no greater tell-tale of someone’s mindset than how they act with constraints. But it’s a mindset that needs constant practice. We may have a handle on some, but they find a way of disguising themselves and popping up at different times.

Last week, I found myself getting blocked by a constraint at work. I was investing energy into a problem that didn’t affect me, nor was it mine to solve. I was too obsessed with finding a solution to the problem that I didn’t think to just step over it entirely.

It was after a conversation with a colleague that it hit me—the goals I’m trying to achieve are not affected by this problem, yet I’m allowing it to stop me from taking action.

Constraints come in many forms and anything slowing us down or draining our energy should be questioned.

I challenge all of us to find a constraint that’s holding us back…. and then turn our excuses into fuel.