Solutions:   Humility & Courage.  Great quotes at the bottom of the page.

As we encounter families, we often find these two attitudes seriously impacting their ability to move closer to achieving their goals.

Overconfidence:   (Solution: Humility) They are absolutely convinced nothing is better than what they are doing.   If there is any place where it makes sense to have some humility, it is in financial planning.  As you would do before a major surgery - get a second opinion.  The best advice is collaborative advice from a group that includes those that have a fiduciary responsibility to you like a CFP, RIA, CPA and estate planning attorney.  Your experts should have the humility and brains to realize that team advice is BEST.  If not, then they have become too overconfident!  (See quotes below.)

Hopelessness:  (Solution: Courage) They have allowed past bad decisions, and serious ongoing issues to cause them to give up!  Your situation may in fact, be serious - but if you give up, it probably will be even worse. Find the courage to expose where you actually stand - there probably will be bad news - but there may be some good news among the bad  But don't keep your head buried in the sand.  And by all means use experts to discover your real situation. (See quotes below.)

What's the bottom line?  It's this simple:

1) GET EXCELLENT ADVICE (in writing, a real plan, confirmed by cross-functional independent experts)

2) ACT ON THE ADVICE (Rome wasn't built in a day - make serious consistent progress executing the advice, don't waste time and yet, don't panic)

3) REPEAT (1) AND (2)  (It's never "done".)

Quotes  - Enjoy!

"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes." 
Winston Churchill 

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err." 
Mahatma Gandhi 

"A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing." 
Albert Einstein 

"The best way out is always through." 
Robert Frost 

"Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently." 
Maya Angelou 

"We are made to persist.
that's how we find out who we are." 
Tobias Wolff 

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." 
Winston Churchill 

(You gotta love Churchill!!)