At the start of this year I declared that I was going to blog everyday and post a podcast recording once a week. So far, I’ve kept this promise. And, recently I came close to quitting. It was becoming hard work and the results I had been getting based on my web stats were disappointing. Three things kept me going…
1 Nothing
The first thing that turn me around was to ask:
What would happen if I did quit?
The illuminating response that I came up with was that ‘Nothing would happen’. If I quit, then all my work would simply stop and rather obviously I would no longer be in pursuit of my goals. That was enough to make me continue for at least a few more days.
Image: Wikipedia
2 Turning Pro
The second thing that kept me going was to recall the message of Steven Pressfield’s gem of a book Turning Pro. He makes the distinction between an ‘Amateur’ and a ‘Pro’. An amateur turns up and does work when they want to or when the circumstances fit. In contrast, a Pro does the work everyday regardless. I want to be a Pro not an Amateur.
[Tweet “Three reasons why you shouldn’t quit #pro #amateur”]
3 Why?
The third prompt for not quitting was to reflect on why I was blogging and podcasting in the first place. My motivation for blogging was to create a regular routine around writing my books. And, my motivation for creating a podcast was to have great conversations with interesting people.
Can you see where I went wrong? I looked at the web stats and made that mean that I wasn’t achieving my goals. And, this wasn’t why I was doing it in the first place! D’oh!
What had really happened was that I had stopped writing my book and was creating content that had less meaning for me. Effectively it wasn’t building the future I wanted. And, with my podcast I was being lazy and had stopped setting up the conversations I needed to inspire me.
COMMENT: What are the ways that you keep yourself going when you feel like quitting?
