If you are running your own business you will know that there are good times and hard times. People see the good times as you post them on your social media, we all love a good but humble brag! But the hard times, well we generally keep those to ourselves. (I hear you nodding those that have experienced some quiet challenges last year...)
Most people heading into new businesses this year are so full of inspiration and positivity they are not prepared for the depth of challenge, personally and professionally, that a new business can throw up.
I always say that entrepreneurship is a battle of the mind, more than the market.
Sometimes the hard times make you want to give up and revert back to paid employment or forget that new project or just play it small and keep doing what you have always done. I see this all the time with clients I work with and friends around me. I do it myself at times!
We start the year all full of piss and vinegar but forget about how f*^king hard it is to do it.
So if you are struggling to maintain focus on your 2020 goals, this is my number one tip on how to persist from someone too stubborn (or stupid some would say) to give up. For I guarantee there is gold on the other side of persistence.
Love thy pain
My key tip is you have to lean into the discomfort. I have a Yin Yang tattoo on my left wrist to remind me that there is balance in all things. In all good things, there are challenges and all challenging things rewards. In equal measure, I might add.
Therefore, if you want a huge amount of reward, expect an equally huge amount of challenge! I have never seen this not play out in real life. If you can find an example where someone achieved amazing things without giving up something else I would love to hear about it!
Celebrities give up privacy, rich people give up perspective, hard-working people give up health, lifestyle people give up security etc What you give up is different for all people but there is always something equally as large.
So when setting out to do a big goal, plan for the success and write down what you are prepared to give up to achieve the goal. Is it time, money, uncertainty, ego, friends approval, comfort, security or something else? If you know ahead of time, and you still want to pursue the goal, you are more likely to achieve it with a balanced perspective.
As long as what you are working towards is higher on your hierarchy of values than that which you give up, you will feel fulfilled. If you chase things you don't really want, you will end up dissatisfied once you achieve it.
Example
In my thirties, I was all about success and career. I worked in a corporate job, flew around the world and was having a great time, earning big bucks and generally loving life. After a decade of this, owning my house, having lots of assets, I realised I was empty. I just wasn't living to my true values. I had what others would call success, it was societies values I was adopted as my own, and those things didn't fulfil me.
So I changed. But the change was painful and difficult. I lost assets, status, friends and more.
But I gained freedom, perspective, balance and most importantly time with my family and kids.
I wrote a book, started a business and basically turned it all around. Some call it a midlife crisis. I call it an awakening of what's really important and meaningful in life.
The Gold
It's been a decade since that change and a lot has happened. There have been ups and downs in the business, but every day when I wake up and can choose where I spend my time, how I manage my children and which people I want to work with. It's nice to have that level of control over my life and I am now comfortable with the uncertainty which is the balance of course.
Each year I still set impossibly high goals! Can't help it haha But I know that there will be lots of challenges along the way.
Now here is the secret to it all...
The gold isn't the income or the ego. It's not even in the result. The real goal is overcoming the challenges. Without the challenge, there is no satisfaction. It's not just in the way of the goal - it is the goal.
Like the man that cheats to get where he is, there is no satisfaction unless you know what you have done to get where you are. Only then can you really be joyous with the result.
Andrew
