Wednesday Words
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
—Marilyn vos Savant
How many people stop running a marathon when they’re “this close” to finishing?
How many people give up on their Vision when they’re “this close” to making it?
The numbers are bound to be very different. Practically zero for the first. Un-countable, and possibly uncomfortably high, for the second.
What’s the difference? The ability, training/ working, and dogged determination are there in both cases.
But in the second case, there’s no finish line (in sight). When you can’t see where you’re going, sometimes you think you aren’t getting anywhere.
So when the going gets rough for you, do be realistic. Maybe you are on the wrong path. It happens. But maybe you just have a couple of yards to go. Spend some time thinking about it and consulting with your trusted advisors.
If it’s only a temporary condition, don’t give up (and make it permanent) when you’re right about to break through.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
If you enjoyed this post, please Subscribe (it's free!) 
Comment 
Share
Trackback 
22 June 2011, 10:58 am
Marilyn’s name is very apropos…
~Graham
Graham Strong´s latest blog… Late Night- Early Morning – Day 287
23 June 2011, 3:15 am
In the past 8 years the two times I’ve given up were because I was facing a whole lot of work to go that final step to break through and realized that I wasn’t passionate enough about what I was doing to make that effort.
Now that I’ve finally settled into my real passion, the concept of giving up doesn’t exist for me.
So, my question is – if someone seriously feels like giving up is it because they don’t care enough to keep going?
Alex Fayle´s latest blog… Debut Novel Launch- An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life
28 June 2011, 7:35 am
Graham,
The quotation-selection-committee says “We do our best.”
Alex,
In my experience, when they seriously feel like giving up, it’s because of one of a few things:
1. They ran out of money. That takes the heart out of things pretty fast—and most people do not plan for a LONG lean time before the money comes in steadily. (Corollary: their expectations were too high to begin with. People who want to be overnight successes are often not leading with their passions anyway, but with their wallets.)
2. They finally listened to the market… which they should have done in the beginning, but were too headstrong to do. They woke up from the dream of a business they wanted to run to the reality of no one wants, what they want them to want.
3. They don’t know how close they are to a breakthrough (this post’s topic).
4. Your point exactly—they ran out of joy/passion/energy. If it’s not caused by 1, 2 ,or 3, a lot of times that’s caused by external things like family life and expectations—which are pretty miserable for small business people to battle constantly, and then get up and try to conquer the world in their business as well. You can only wage war on so many fronts!
Good question. I almost wrote a whole post thinking about it!
Regards,
Kelly
28 June 2011, 3:31 pm
In my first business #1 came close to happening as well as #4 as well as deciding against #3.
Alex Fayle´s latest blog… Debut Novel Launch: An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life
28 June 2011, 9:40 pm
Alex,
And that makes all the difference now, eh? Nobody’s got a crystal ball, of course, so you just can’t be *sure*—but when you’ve got that passion, none of ‘em, 1 through 4, seem so insurmountable. That’s a good thing.
Until later,
Kelly
29 June 2011, 4:55 pm
And patience, lots and lots of patience…
Alex Fayle´s latest blog… Debut Novel Launch: An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life