What Do You Do When You Feel Like Giving Up?
Yaro recently wrote an extremely thought-provoking post on "How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up."
At the time of this writing, there have been over 100 comments on this article so it really struck a chord with many bloggers, including myself.
Yaro starts off the article by admitting that:
"Like most people, some mornings I wake up and feel less than enthusiastic about working. Sometimes, this feeling doesn’t stem from laziness or apathy, it’s a stronger power, a sense of futility and helplessness."
These feelings are probably more prevalent in newer and as yet unsuccessful bloggers and online marketers and are often made worse by information overload.
Creating a successful online business takes time and it is often difficult to keep working when you are not realizing any fruits of your labors.
You really need a clearly defined goal, purpose, or mission statement in order to persevere:
"It’s very hard to be confident of success when you have yet to seriously experience it. In many ways, at this stage of your business career, faith and fake-it-till-you-make-it confidence in your idea has to carry you through the self doubt, the set-backs and the slow growth."
Write down your purpose for blogging or internet marketing and review it often, especially first thing in the morning and before you go to bed at night.
Yaro makes an excellent point by saying that to remain productive in spite of how you are feeling, you must keep focusing on action.
"One of the things I did and still do whenever I feel less than enthusiastic is to focus on output, rather than the external elements that bring me down. I might feel utterly crushed, but I know if I create something or take any productive action, I continue towards my goals."
Here's an example to illustrate this:
In my younger days, I was a successful bodybuilder.
I know that may sound strange, but bear with me for a moment.
I often did not feel like going to the gym BUT I knew that by going in for a workout:
- it would keep me moving towards my goals
- it would prevent me from missing a workout and having to catch up
- I would set myself up to have a really great workout when I was more in the mood
- I knew that I would feel good afterwards (this is important - think about it)
The simple thing I did was not listen to my mind and just go to the gym.
In time, with practice, this helped to develop discipline and produced outstanding results.
We can apply the same strategy to our online businesses.
What do you do when you feel like giving up?
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