3 things to keep in mind when the going gets tough

By Nicah Caramba

Your startup is barely getting off the ground, or maybe you’ve been working your butt off for that promotion and you don’t see any progress. It could even be your last semester in college and you’re struggling to review for your very last finals ‘til you’re off applying for jobs.

We all have our own battles. And it’s extremely tempting to give up when nothing seems to go right. I’ve been having hardships getting my online business to its goals, but I know that if I put in the work, make mistakes early, learn from it right away and go from there, I’ll be closer to the success I want to achieve.

The same goes for everybody reading this too. I know it’s difficult. So here are three things to keep in mind whenever you feel like everything’s a burden on your heart and shoulders:

Success doesn’t happen overnight

You’ve heard this countless times, but you’re reading this for a reason. We’re human and it’s perfectly natural to be impatient. But oftentimes we allow it to get to our hearts, then later on we find ourselves unable to function to our full potential after again being faced with that fact. Even right now as I write this, I’m still a bit upset that I remembered that it will take more loads of work to be done to get where I want to be. However, the sooner we accept that success doesn’t happen overnight, the better. Whether you believe it or not, that’s still the harsh truth.

I could spew content here and there all day, every day, but that doesn’t mean I’ll wake up the next day with my desired lifestyle. In fact, avoid working all day every day! That could be detrimental to your health and decrease the chances of seeing the results of your labour (I mean death due to unhealthy practices here).

So take it one step at a time. Slowly but surely. You have to fall in love with the process, dear reader. If you’re not already in love with what you’re doing, better think of doing something else or looking at your work with a new perspective. It makes the long days and nights a little more bearable.

Mistakes are normal but you need to learn from them

If it happens once, it’s a mistake. If it happens twice, it’s a choice. Heard of that quote? You see, mistakes are encouraged by the most successful people because it gives you something to learn from. But there’s no point in committing the same mistake over and over. If you’re going through rough patches right now because of your mistakes, don’t take it too personally. There are always other factors why mistakes happen, and the ultimate thing is they already happened and we can’t do anything about them anymore except to learn from them. Make sure they don’t happen again in the future. Whether it’s choosing the wrong business partner or investing in the wrong company, it’s done. It’s in the past. But the past isn’t meant to be forgotten, it’s meant to gain lessons from.

The fruits of hard work are sweet

Keep going. Don’t worry if you’re on the right path or not. It will reveal itself to you when it’s time, as long as you’re consistent with your work. Compare yourself today versus last year. Amazing how one year can change a lot of things, right? Guess what? The time will pass anyway, so might as well do what you need to do. I hope you never ever find yourself saying this a lot, “I wish I started last year! Imagine what I could’ve accomplished by today.”

When I was starting out with blogging last year, I didn’t even know what domain names are. I read their definition over and over until I got it, and how hosting works to get websites on the internet. I felt dumb and uncomfortable, but I persisted because I knew what I wanted to achieve. Nobody in my family has any background with online business, so in terms of looking for mentors in real life, I didn’t have anyone but myself. Thankfully, along my journey, I’ve discovered more people within reach who I could relate to.

It took a lot of networking and branding yourself for people to find out about you, but the fruits are oh, so sweet! I’m part of a community of like-minded people who share the same goals now, and it wouldn’t have happened if I never put in the work needed. I’ve had niche changes along the way, but I continued working until I found one that was fit for me and there was a market for. Don’t be intimidated by the work needed to be done. It will all be worth it in the end.

(Extracted from internet)