Entrepreneurship and leadership expert Rhett Power offers five tips to help entrepreneurs stick to your goals for your small business when you feel like giving up.
Anything worth doing is not easy. I didn’t realize what that really meant until I started my business. I hadn’t really ever failed or been pushed as hard as I was than those first couple of years. So believe me when I say getting discouraged when trying to reach your goals is only natural. But that doesn’t mean you should give up, not matter how impossible things are looking at the moment. Here are 5 tips to sticking to your goals even when you feel like quitting.
1) Remember Your “Why”?
Why did you create your goal in the first place? Was it to get to know yourself more? Become a better person? Make a change in the world? Get prestige, glory, or fame? Whenever you feel discouraged, think of why you’re doing this and let that motivation fuel you to stick to your goal. If the reason why you started this journey is no longer important to you, and no new motivations come to mind, then maybe it’s time to move on. But if your reason for accomplishing that goal is still important, then stick with it.
2) Succeed at Another Accomplishment
If you are feeling burnt out, have low morale or self-esteem, then you might need some encouragement. The best way to remind yourself that you can succeed at your goals is to succeed at something else. Maybe you will knit a scarf, cook a new recipe or run a 5k. Or perhaps you will finally clean out your closet and donate all your old clothes to charity. When you are finished, you will feel accomplished. Share your achievement with your friends and family, and bask in the accomplishment for all its worth. Getting success will motivate you to pursue more success, and it will encourage you to keep working towards your goals.
3) Change the “How”
Maybe what you need to do is find another way to accomplish your goal. Brainstorm new ways to approach your problem. Perhaps consult other people in your field, or your friends and family to get fresh perspectives on it. Once you have a list of new things to try, pick a new method and try it out to see if it will work.
4) Learn from Failure
Failure happens to the best of us. The world’s most successful people will be the first to tell you that they have failed many times before. But they didn’t quit at the first sign of failure. Instead, they learned from their mistakes and analyzed what went wrong. That new knowledge helped them grow their success. So do the same thing. It’s okay to be discouraged, but don’t take it as a sign to give up. Take it as a lesson.
5) Adopt a Success Mindset
Failures and stalled progress often look like the end of the world. That has a lot to do with our mindsets. When we don’t see results we think it’s taking so much time and it’s so difficult. When we see bad results, we think about how we’re a failure. This makes us feel bad and unmotivated to continue.
Intentionally changing your thinking patterns will take some work but it is possible. When you catch yourself thinking “This is so difficult” repeat the statement: “I love challenges” a couple of times to yourself. When you think “I’m such a failure”, just remind yourself: “setbacks are only temporary”. It might take a few times to convince yourself, but slowly your mindset will change and it will motivate you to keep going and to accomplish your goals.
Rhett Power is the co-founder of Wild Creations, an award-winning start-up toy company named one of Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing US Companies. A member of the United States Department of State’s International Speakers Program, he travels the globe speaking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and management alongside the likes of Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, AOL Founder Steve Case, and President Barack Obama. His latest book is The Entrepreneur’s Book of Actions.