When we don’t take action to change something that should ideally be changed, we still have the pain of staying at status quo.

Simplest example is exercise. A lot of people struggle with this. They don’t realise that they may be avoiding the pain of exercise, but they still have to suffer the pain of an unfit body and poor health.

If you don’t make a conscious choice, life is making a default choice for you, which is also painful. And, you lose control over the steering wheel of your life. You are no longer deciding the right direction for your life. The car of your life is directionless, wandering aimlessly, and going into wrong directions.

The path to progress in life will usually involve pain and suffering. The only choice you may have in the matter is which pain you are willing to go through. There is either the pain of action and hard work, or there is the pain of continuing to live with the problem. Either way there’s pain. 

Reframe your decisions in terms of  “which pain am I choosing for myself ?” When you do this, you become more aware of the fact that there is pain either way, and this might motivate you to choose a better and more valuable pain.