Today we’re talking about giving up and what to do instead.
Are you thinking of giving up before you give it your all?
Seth Godin calls this The Dip. It’s that really uncomfortable place that you get to right before you break through to another level.
Let me give you a few examples of what happens when you’re experiencing entrepreneurial self-help growing pains.
But first, let me start with an analogy that we’ll all get.
Giving Up & What To Do Instead
The Giving Up Analogy
You have a train to catch (it could be a plane, a bus, or a boat, too!) and you can see it in the distance… you’re carrying some baggage but you believe that if you run for it, you can catch it before the doors close.
You’re running to get to the train, full steam ahead, and you see the doors start to close. If you slow down and tell yourself “oh well, I’ll catch the next one” then you’re pretty much guaranteeing that the train will take off without you.
On the other hand, if you see the doors start to close and you give your legs an extra dose of energy and wave your hand in the air… by the time you get to the doors, they might have re-opened just for you.
Have you ever experienced this before? Now we can go into why this happens, whether it’s the conductor that saw you and gave you a chance, or maybe that you willed your way onto the train… But I think this happens to us in so many areas of life, and especially in business.
If you’re doing a product launch and you don’t get the number of sign ups you were hoping for, you hold back. Instead of sending those last few emails to tell people about the program, you say to yourself you’ll do better next launch.
Maybe you’re in talks with a podcast host who wants to interview you, and you’re trying to find a time that works for both of you, and it’s getting hard to schedule… so you let the email linger in your inbox to the point that it’s embarrassing to reach back out later.
Or you’re writing your book, and you see someone who has a book coming out with a similar topic so you want to throw in the towel.
So how can you turn these uncomfortable moments into times where the doors open for you, and you get on the train and sigh because you made it!?
How To Gain Momentum Instead
In the case of the product launch, give your fingers some extra energy to write those last few emails with lots of heart. Sometimes we try to be so perfect that we forget people want to hear the real story: you can tell people you have spots left in a genuine and welcoming way.
And why not apologize to the podcast host and pick up where the conversation left off, offer up the best time slots and make it happen. It’s never too late.
As for the book, if you’ve come this far with it, there’s no reason to let the doors close… you’ll feel a million times better once it’s out into the world, and it doesn’t matter that someone else is riding the train with you!
Now this doesn’t mean that you should constantly be on the run in your business, and pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion… it just means that you need to be aware when you’re about to give up hope, and to re-invigorate yourself in those moments.
Let’s Do It!
So my call to action for you today is to look at any project or goal you’ve felt like you haven’t been able to reach… and see if you unconsciously gave up on it, and find a way to revive it if it’s something you still want for yourself.
Give yourself some energy to make it happen, and watch what happens when you make it to the other side. It feels good, trust me!
