I hear it all the time. #Hustle! #Grind24/7! Outwork your competition! It's all valid stuff. I say it to my readers all the time on Twitter or through this site. Millennials are immersed in this social media culture that is full of overnight success stories. People rarely talk about being patient with yourself.
As a small-business owner, I get in a funk sometimes honestly. This blog and my digital marketing company have some awesome times of progress and momentum. Some months I double my old salary. Sometimes I have bad months and make less than I did before.
There's times of failed sales pitches and posts that don't do well. Money and opportunities that I thought were a sure thing that never materialize. In fact, in the last few months I've failed way more than I've succeeded. I beat myself up constantly because it's all on me.
Paying off debt
Building wealth
Making an emergency savings fund
Starting a business
Growing your business
Chasing a sale
Investing
Getting the promotion
Building a relationship
We've all seen the “How to ______ quickly” or “How I ______ in 30 days”. On the surface, there's good insight in that content (sometimes). We're conditioned to want instant information, lightning quick feedback, time-scorching results. It's rarely that way in real life though.
One of the first things I mention to advertisers is that I paid off my student loans quickly. $40,000 in a year and a half on a teacher's salary! It sounds like this incredible, sexy story of some guy growth hacking his debt payments and conquering life.
But it didn't feel that way until I was finished. It was months of not knowing what the hell I was doing. I was blindly making payments and not feeling fulfilled with success or a light at the end of the tunnel. $26,480 doesn't feel much different than $38,213.
Insert any goal you have for yourself right now, and I'd imagine it's a similar story. You're looking forward to the day you've conquered your mountain and wishing the tough part was behind you.
I want to issue a challenge. Hopefully you'll accept it, because I think you'll find that it gives you some new energy to hit your goals:
Take a day and be patient with yourself.
Let me explain. Rather than focusing on your failures and how far away from your goal you are, try to realize the accomplishments you've had along the way and evaluate where you are right now. When I was in my last business funk, I tried it….and it worked. Here's what I realized:
4 years ago I had a ton of debt and a job I didn't like. Now I'm debt free and happy.
My business strategy has worked so far. I'm not struggling to make money.
Companies pay me to write about my life. How cool is that?
I've been featured and mentioned on some awesome websites. People actually call me a financial expert. Crazy.
I'm pretty talented at describing my client's products and have creative ideas.
This blog has a growing community of readers that give a $hit about their money and becoming debt free.
People tell me that my story is inspirational. That's helping people in my book.
I will say this – the hustle and grind mentality that you hear from the popular motivational speakers on Facebook or wherever is awesome. Keep watching those videos or reading the posts that inspire you.
For every day that you take a step back and exhibit some patience with yourself, there should be 30 days that you push like crazy, beat yourself up, and work to make your dreams come true.
What have you done lately that's [email protected]$$? Take the challenge and tell me how you've killed it below.
Live differently. Your bank accounts will thank me later. ~ M$M
That’s true, it can be long and tough grind to get to the top of the mountain. I find myself constantly “moving the cheese” and not giving myself much time to enjoy achieving goals. It’s good to remember where I came from and the success I’ve had so far. Thanks for the challenge, I’ll take today to be more patient.
No problem! I have to say, you are the most consistent first commenter I have ever seen. 🙂
It still always puzzles me whenever people tell me what I did was inspirational. I had a story of mine go viral a while back and lots of emails asking for advice and inquiries came in. People kept googling my name and finding it more and more. It’s weird because in my eyes I don’t really see what I did as this huge thing. It was just something I did so I could reach a goal I wanted to reach.
People get so caught up in a future complex thinking “I need to do this, this, and this.” and they forget the badass things they’ve accomplished so far.
You should read Lauren Bowling’s post on the ups and downs of her entrepreneur journey, it’s an awesome read: http://bit.ly/1X86wEx
Cool thanks, I’ll check it out! Congrats on your success!
Thanks for the reminder to be patient. I’m so up and down on this, I drive myself crazy sometimes. I tend to hustle to the point of burnout, but patience is the cure for that and your exercise of stepping back and looking at progress is very helpful!
No problem! I struggle with it sometimes, especially just after failing miserably on a sale or something. Kinda reminds me to keep it in perspective and keep hustling!
Thanks for this message. Congrats on all of your success. I think one of the hardest parts of being a small business owner is the ups and downs and being too hard on yourself. I’m a firm believe that it is better to be consistent and show up every day do the best you can and the hard work will pay off. Not in a moment but over time your efforts will reap rewards if your efforts are put into the right work.
I struggle with not giving myself credit for what I have accomplished and moving onto the task without properly acknowledging the progress I have made. Recently I took the Strength Finders 2.0 and one of my top 5 talents was “Achiever” which is always focusing on doing more and more. I kind of knew this already but it is helping me be more aware that I need to celebrate the success (when it comes) and not just rush off to do the next thing. Thanks again for this message that I hope everyone embraces.
You’re welcome! It IS about the long term plan. Businesses aren’t built in a day, success stories aren’t overnight.
I’m facing a mountain of student loan debt so patience is going to be critical. At the same time, I’m mad at the debt so I’m really pulling out the stops to get it paid off…including starting a blog. I don’t expect to earn anything significant but writing about it is helping keep me motivated, and so is surrounding myself with people in the blogging community who are trying to accomplish the same goals.
Thanks for this post.
No problem! Nothing wrong with hating the debt, just take a little time every once in a while to stop beating yourself up.
I’m in the same boat, Andrew! It’s hard to stay mad/motivated/paying stuff off at a high rate when the debt load is so high sometimes, while still being kind and gentle and realizing it’s going to take some time. Like MMM said above, “$26,480 doesn’t feel much different than $38,213” – well, 78k in student loan debt probably doesn’t feel much different from 79.
Blogging is a release valve & motivator for me too, but it’s also kind of nice to be able to share with readers the other stuff that’s going on in my life. In a weird way, it encourages me to be kinder to myself, because as I’m writing, I’m like, “Oh yeah! I do have stuff going on!”
Blogging is a great release! I can say way more on here than I feel like I can in the regular world 🙂
I left my job (employed by my mentor of 10 years) after just 4 months to go to another job with amazing benefits and almost double the salary. I literally landed my dream job simply because I asked someone if I could work there. The saying “it never hurts to ask” really holds true in this case.
Congrats!