Do you ever have one of those days (or months) when you just want to throw in the towel? Usually it’s after being disappointed, working your ass off and something not working out or plain and simple burn out. The inevitable challenges of life get the best of you and make you question your dreams and your success. You aren’t alone. Every success story suffers failures – lots of them.
I had a big fail moment like that earlier this week. I’m in the process of re-messaging my entire brand, website, collateral – everything. Basically taking four years of work and flushing it down the toilet to take a new direction that fits with where my clients and market are pushing me to go. To say it’s a lot of work is an understatement. But it’s a lot of satisfying work – though tedious at times.
So why did I want to throw in the towel?
Here’s what happened. I was so excited to give everyone a sneak peek of the new website and messaging I had been working so hard on for months. After sharing the link and offering some free coaching sessions I got crickets. Hardly a like, no spike in traffic, no sign-ups for the free coaching.
How could that be? Do none of my thousands of followers have any interest in what I do? And if they don’t, why the heck am I even doing it? I could just as well be sitting at a desk in an office building somewhere spinning my wheels for someone else and getting a mindless paycheck for it.
But guess what? I didn’t throw in the towel and I’m sure glad I didn’t.
Turns out I forgot to click a box on my email program so I would get notifications if someone signed up for my free coaching session offer. When I went in to look at the site manually, there was a flood of interest just as I had hoped there would be – and luckily I had hung onto the towel (just barely) so I could mop up the flood!!
The lesson is this – when life is disappointing, always look deeper. Are there lessons overlooked? Is there a silver lining somewhere under all the crap? Is your success clouded by expectations?
Here are 7 questions to ask yourself (and reasons NOT to throw in the towel):
- What did the setback teach you that you will do differently next time?
- What did the challenge make you appreciate more in your personal or professional life?
- Is there something that didn’t work that you now know to never do again?
- Did you meet a new connection as part of the failed project who may be valuable in the future?
- Did you figure out a better path through a difficult situation that you can use again in similar situations?
- Was there any personal growth that made you stronger, more resilient or opened your mind?
- Did your setback actually help someone else get ahead so at least someone benefited?
Before you give up on your big dreams or let your brilliant idea die, make sure you take the time to really assess what went wrong, why it happened and how you can improve for the future. Then start over, keep on trucking and find a new way to make your goals real. You deserve it and your hard work should continue to fuel you.
Now pick that towel back up, wipe the sweat from your brow and tell me how you’re going to bring your dream to life! You are a success story and I want to hear all about it.
Seriously – tell me – I want to know!
Share your idea below and we can help each other stay focused and moving forward.
