Life
Remember These 3 Things When Your Motivation Starts to Fade
Just because we want something bad enough doesn’t mean we will always get it. No matter how much self-talk or hoping you do. Life is all about failing and succeeding, but really one of those words is non-existent.
It can be discouraging to have been working on something for 5+ years and see no progress, then you read about someone who made it happen in 6months-1year. As painful as it is, you should not let that affect you, because everyone comes in at different times with different things.
Some people come in with supportive friends and close ones, others with money they found a way to get or had worked hard for, and many like me come in butt naked. To go after what it is we want, I will always say that it is worth the effort no matter how long it takes. Now, no matter how you come in this game they call being an entrepreneur, sooner or later things will slip, and you will want to give up.
I love to hear about others success, so I want to make sure that doesn’t happen and one day, maybe I’ll read about your success and I’ll be proud of you though we never met.
Here’s how to keep your head up when your motivation starts to fade:
1. You’re not a failure until you quit
It takes no effort to be a quitter. Anyone can quit. I should know, before graduating high school, I quit everything I went after. Football, quit. Basketball quit – actually, I didn’t make the team.
I would start something and just quit. But me quitting sports vs you quitting your dream, your goal, your calling, is a different story. I never wanted to become a professional player, so it brought no value to my life.
But when you embark on the journey to become an entrepreneur and start something great, everything around you changes. Don’t invest 1+ years into what you want and quit, because rather than calling it effort it becomes wasted time. When you don’t use that experience to try something else it becomes wasted effort. Remember, anyone can quit, but not everyone can win if they don’t grasp it.
“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
2. Asking for help does not make you weak
Help! God do I hate that word sometimes. It’s funny because no one likes asking for help but they are quick to offer it.
When you’ve been shunned by close friends and turned down by many, it can be hard to muster the courage to ask for help again. But what do all these rejections mean? Is it a sign from the Gods that you should stop asking for help, or are you just asking the wrong people?
Life gets hard, you will get stuck and lose motivation and asking for help can be the best thing to do.
Ask often, but most importantly you need to ask the right person. If you choose to ask a well-known stranger, remember they are well known which means you are not the first, but you could develop a friendship that can help you in more ways than you think.
3. Stop underestimating yourself
The mind is quite strange. It rarely lets you see things as you should. You have come a long way, but you are focusing on the unknown of how much longer it’s going to take. Don’t add more weight to something that can be closer than you are imagining it.
When you first started you knew little to nothing. Think about it. Really sit and think about how far you’ve come. the difficulties you faced. Things you thought were impossible that you are now doing with ease.
Don’t underestimate yourself because what’s in front of you will always look bigger than it actually is and you will forget how hard you worked, the pain you’ve had to go through and how strong you’ve become.
“The only mistake you can make is not asking for help.” – Sandeep Jauhar
You can’t forget your reason for starting in the first place. When you are about to give up, look back at the start and remind yourself why you started and what your end goal is.
If you can envision it, if you can’t think of anything else and daydream about it constantly, that should be a sign that it’s not your time to turn tail and quit, but to motivate yourself and push through.
It’s not easy, but you are not a quitter. Don’t let your mind or anyone else try to tell you otherwise. Believe in you and believe in your dreams. Your place is set. All you have to do now is grab it.