It’s only recently that I’ve seen some light at the end of the tunnel that is my current chapter of my life. It hasn’t been particularly brutal, aside from financial disparity, though mentally it’s been a battlefield.
At every turn I have self-sabotaging tendencies. They normally can be stayed in check, but in times where I’m in a slump or feel particularly pessimistic, these tendencies come through.
I clamp up to offers from people, not responding to their messages for days or weeks or end up deleting their messages.
That or I stick to poor habits that I know full well won’t help my current situation at all.
Every attempt at pivoting or pushing myself to keep working on a project or on something has me doing mental gymnastics with myself.
Trying to convince myself that I should be consistent with what I’m building.
To put myself out there and be relevant.
Meanwhile looking at regressing results in the face of those attempts.
One can look at these things or similar behaviour and tell people they should be giving up. That what they are doing clearly isn’t working or getting them anywhere.
Whether that’s yourself that is telling you this or someone else, here is my advice for what to actually be doing next.
Recognize The Challenge Set Before You
One of the issues that a lot of people don’t understand is that everything these days is harder to achieve. Yes, consistency matters, but you need to be consistent and good at what you do.
How do you get good? By outputting a lot.
We like to think we’re living in our own success story in the making which often shows people struggling for a little bit before suddenly they hit their “big break”.
We look at inspirational stories and films and fit ourselves neatly into those characters and associate ourselves with them.
It’s certainly a good feeling, but we get so lost in those stories that we fail to recognize the nuances of those things. To begin, those stories and films only show snippets of a person’s life.
We don’t realize that many of today’s billionaires and millionaires had a rich uncle, friend, or other relative to bail them out either. And generously at that.
To achieve what is relatively effortless for those born into wealth, one must dedicate time, energy, and a lot of commitment to it. Through commitment, your quality improves as you learn the rules of the industry and how to make things happen.
Then you begin to carve out your portion and continue to nurture it.
All of this becomes easier when you recognize the challenges that you are faced with. When you know exactly what you are up against and how that measures up to your current attempt.
Alex Mathers wrote an article in March on the subject of getting seen as a writer and his advice is to make 300 attempts. It’s a sound idea, especially since he’s garnered so much success of his own through this logic.
But not only would I stretch this beyond creative work to any long-term endeavour, but I’d expand it in other ways. If you want anything to go anywhere, then you need to be making those 300 attempts, but also go above and beyond that.
Always Be Thinking Of New Ideas
Specifically, new to you ideas. Ideas of things you never tried before but heard about from others. That or returning to things you used to do.
I’ve been struggling with being seen myself hence why that article from Mathers popped up and I took an interest in. I read through it and engaged with it which is a first for me since I’ve been stuck in a habit of posting content and not engaging with other people’s work on the platform.
And so I’m making that change.
Not only to freshen up my ideas for articles to write in the future, but to engage with other writers and to share my own thoughts on various subjects.
It’s a simple change, but often with self-help returning to basics and following straightforward ideas and advice can be a viable solution. Especially if it leads to something new for you to be trying out.
What these new ideas do is revitalize your spark to achieve that goal. It gives you another reason to push forward and find success and fulfilment from. This makes all the difference during those moments where you feel like you’re at a stand still.
Finally, You Can Always Ask For Help
Similar to the millionaires and billionaires of the world, they have people around them to enable them. For better or for worse, every individual in the world has gotten to their respective positions with guidance or support from someone else.
And that’s okay.
We’re social creatures in the end and we gravitate towards people. We want to help, empathize, connect, or at least learn about that person.
As such, I believe it’s important to embrace that part of human nature and leverage it for some good. To get out there and ask for assistance however possible. Not to exploit said people, but to at least ease the hardships.
No one’s journey in improving themselves is done alone. There could be hundreds to thousands of individuals backing them up in their own way. Because of this, it’s important to embrace this side of our humanity and to ask for help in that regard.
Because I know how difficult asking for help can be. After all, it feels like a betrayal to ourselves or it gives the impression that we’re not “cut out for that sort of thing.”
The reality isn’t like that.
Again, making an attempt at building a habit or staying committed to something let alone turn it into something lucrative or meaningful is really difficult. It’s not always going to be a one-person show.
Learning and embracing that can only help you.
For me, I’m hopeful. I want to be making changes to my brand and now that I have less financial worry, I can focus more on these things. I can hone my craft that I’ve spent years working on. I can explore new ideas.
And I can also be asking for help in the process too.
With that in mind, if you haven’t followed me at all yet, consider doing that if you like my work. I’m sure follower count has something to do with the algorithms.
Beyond that, I’d consider clicking some of the links below if you want to help me out further. Appreciate it!
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