“Commitment in the face of conflict produces character.” ~Unknown
We all face obstacles in pursuing our goals, whether they’re
professional or personal.
We think we’re on the right track but realize we’ve chosen the
wrong approach. We’re enthusiastic and hard-working, but our support system
disintegrates when we need them the most. We’re just about to make significant
progress when we run out of time or funding.
Tenacious as we may be, we all have our breaking points—that
moment when the potential rewards stop justifying the effort. Usually, that’s
the hump that separates your best shot and your best reality.
Before you throw in the towel and go back to something safe and
far less taxing, ask yourself the following questions:
1.
Why did you want to pursue this goal to begin with—and has anything changed?
You had a good reason for committing to this plan. Maybe you
visualized a financially free future once you started this new business, or you
realized you’d live longer and healthier if you lost forty pounds.
Odds are, you still want those things as much as you did before;
you just stopped believing you could have them because your attempts have yet
to yield results. Now you have to ask yourself: If you push through the
discomfort, will it be worth it in the end?
2. Have
you been operating with too much information?
With so much information at our fingertips on the good ole World
Wide Web, it’s easy to overwhelm yourself with more knowledge than you can
apply. You read e-books and blogs, participate in teleconferences and coaching
sessions, and join user forums to talk about getting things done.
One of two things happen as a result: you spend more time
planning to act than acting, or you devote minimal energy to multiple plans
instead of committing to one solid approach. Instead of drowning in all the
data, why not narrow it down and start again from a less overwhelming space?
3.
Did you set a smart goal? SMART goals are:
· Specific—you
know exactly what your world will look like when you achieve this goal.
· Measurable—you
have a specific plan to mark your progress as you go.
· Attainable—you
have the attitude and aptitude to make your goal reality.
· Realistic—you’re
willing and able to do the required work.
· Time-bound—you’ve
set a concrete time frame for completion to create a sense of urgency.
If you didn’t set a SMART goal, you may have set yourself up for
failure. How can you possibly make something happen if you don’t know exactly
what you want, or didn’t really believe you could do it? Are you really willing
to walk away when you didn’t give yourself every opportunity to succeed?
4. What’s
the worst that will happen if you keep going and don’t reach your goal?
Often when I want to turn around it’s because I’m afraid of
failing—afraid other people will be disappointed in me or judge me, or afraid
I’ll have wasted my time. In all reality, no one ever judges us like we judge
ourselves, and we always grow and learn through the process of striving,
regardless of what we attain.
If you don’t keep going, you’ll never know how
far you could have gone and you’ll miss out on being the person you’d become
through the effort itself. If you do keep going, well, it’s
like this quote: “Shoot for the moon, for even if you miss you’ll land among
the stars.”
5. Are
you afraid of succeeding?
One of my biggest problems is that I don’t like responsibility.
There are many things I’d like to do, but I resist because I don’t want
the power to impact, hurt, or disappoint other people. That doesn’t mean that I
don’t have dreams. It’s just that I’m just scared of what achieving them will
entail.
If you can relate to this feeling, perhaps you’ll respond well
to the mantra I’ve been repeating: great power comes with great responsibility,
but it also brings great rewards. If you play it safe you won’t hurt or
disappoint anyone, but you also won’t help or inspire anyone. And equally
important, you won’t help or inspire yourself.
6.
Are you acting on impulse or emotion instead of thinking things through?
Sometimes our emotions give us hints about what we want and what
we should do, but other times they’re just responses to stress, and maybe even
indications we’re on the right track. If you act in that moment of intense
emotion—be it anger, fear, or frustration—you may regret it once the wave has
passed.
So sit back. Take note of what you’re feeling. Feel it fully,
without judging it or yourself. Then act when you’ve gotten to the other side.
At least then you’ll know you made your decision in a moment of peace and
clarity.
7.
Would you enjoy giving a loved one the honest explanation for why you gave up?
And I mean honest.
Would you like telling your daughter, “I stopped trying to
quit smoking because cigarettes are more important to me than having more
golden years to spend with you?”
Would it be fun to tell your mother “I decided not to go to
school because I’d rather spend all my time with my boyfriend of three months
than prepare for a career that will ensure I won’t end up jobless and
homeless?”
If you lay out it out like this, odds are you’ll realize you had
a really good reason for doing this difficult thing, and no matter how
challenging the process is, it’s worth plowing ahead.
8.
Would your life be better if you gave up on this goal?
This may not sound motivational, but sometimes giving up is
actually good thing. Perhaps you set a completely unrealistic goal and its
pursuit is filling you with a constant set of inadequacy and anxiety. Or maybe
the goal isn’t in yours or your family’s best interest, and it’s better to get
out before you invest so much time it’s near impossible to walk away.
You could easily use this as a justification to delude yourself,
so think about it carefully. Is this goal really a good thing, when you weigh
all the consequences of its fulfillment?
9.
How much have you already put in?
A concept studied in social psychology called “the sunk cost
principle” indicates the more we’ve invested in something, the less likely we
are to prematurely walk away.
How invested are you? How much money and time have you devoted?
How many sacrifices have you made? Are you really willing to chalk it all up as
a loss because you’re not feeling confident in your abilities?
10.
What would you tell someone else if they were in your shoes?
Would you tell your best friend to throw in the towel because
she can’t possibly reach her goal? Or would you practice your finest
motivational speech and help her see what you see in her potential? Unless
you’re secretly a frenemy who hopes she fails in life odds are you’d push her
to be her best—so why not push yourself?
It may sound kind of cheesy, but you need to be your own best
friend. You, more than anyone in this world, deserve your belief and
motivation.
If you’ve gone through all these questions and still feel
resolute about the decision to give up, you have my blessing to abandon your
goal. (Bet you feel so relieved!)
If you don’t—if there’s some lingering doubt—keep working toward
that dream that fills you with passion.
Take a different approach if you need to.
Enlist new assistance. Scale back your time commitment to something you can
more easily maintain. But whatever you do, don’t give yourself a reason to one
day utter the words, “I quit because I was scared.”
Credit to Tinybuddha