My Follower and Why I'm Not Quitting
That's right I have a follower, as in one, and she's my Mom. I have 23 posts, 3 comments, and yep all the comments are from dear old Mom (and they were all about how awesome she thinks my writing is...she might be a little partial!) It's easy to get discouraged and wonder if all my hard work is even going to pay off. I had to give myself a major pep talk today and I'm going to give you the same one in case you are in the same place.
Here are some things you and I can both do when discouragement sets in.
Don't Compare Yourself To Others
We ALL have a tendency to do this. One day I will see a post from someone who got their traffic to 1,000 after 100 posts and the next day I'll see a post from someone who only got to 500 after 200 posts. Comparing your progress to someone else is only going to make you more frustrated, so stop it!
Don't You Dare Quit!
It's tempting to throw our hands up in the arm and say "I'm not doing this anymore" but I urge you not to do that. All quitting will do will slow down your progress even more. Believe me I could write a book about all the things I started and gave up on before coming to WA. That's why I've spent the better part of a decade trying to start an online business. I never stuck to anything long enough to succeed! I have determined I'm not doing that anymore.
I'll use the example of one blog post I was working on.
It was a particularly long and complicated post that was taking me forever to write. It required a ton of research and frankly I wanted to give up on it about half-way through. But then I realized in the same amount of time it would take me to write a brand new one, I could finish this one. So I pressed through and finished it and I'm pretty happy with it. You can quit, but in the same amount of time it would take you to figure out another way to build an online business, you could be making a lot of progress here. Don't give up.
Be Realistic
In this "I want what I want and I want it now" society of ours we want instant results. Pop that online business in the microwave and after it beeps in two minutes you can quit your day job. But it's time for a reality check. That kind of thing doesn't exist (at least not if you want to stay legal and ethical and I sure hope you do).
Anything worth having is worth working hard for.
The most successful people in the world were not overnight successes so what makes us think we will be the exception? Imagine all the people who told Walt Disney he was "wasting his time" drawing cartoons. What if he had listened? Lucille Ball was kicked out of acting school for not having talent. Oprah Winfrey grew up poor. There were probably a lot of times she was tempted to quit. I could go on and on but you get the point. Success didn't come easy for any one of them.
Stick To The Training.... It Works
"How do you know it works, Barbra? Your only follower is your mom!"
I'll tell you how I know. It's not just because of all the success stories I've read (and those are encouraging) but because I've learned more here in the last five months than I learned in five years trying to figure everything out by myself.
For YEARS, I wanted to have my own website. I tried everything. I even tried to learn code (what a mess that was). I spent hours of my life trying to build a website only to have it come crashing down like a house built on sand. I never had the proper foundation before like I do now. Now I'm standing back and looking at this thing I've made and it actually looks like a normal website! I feel confident for the first time that "hey I can really do this!". I love getting into my WordPress back office and actually knowing what I'm doing!
I really and truly believe that if I keep pressing on I will succeed. I'm not saying I'll be like Lucy or Oprah, but that was never my goal to begin with. I just wanted to help support my family from home and I believe if I keep following the training and putting in the hard work I will get there.
I'll make you a deal. I won't give up and you don't give up either, okay?
Here's to our (future) success!
Now back to work!
Recent Comments
6
Hey Barbra, it’s good to follow just to see but every website will be different and your Niche could depend a lot on it.
Keep it up! The way I figured if I have been putting in my best eforrt and a couple years have gone by that is when I would be worried if I am cut out for this.
I see plenty of sites that could be beat in due time poking around on my competitor’s website and my niche is competitive. At the end of the day i’m just trying to get a small piece of a huge pie.
Don’t give up! You will get there.
Tony
Hang in there Barbara, I know the feeling of doubt all too well. I agree, don't compare yourself to others, been there, done that. Just keep on writing, writing, writing. When you think you are done, write some more :)
Best of luck and keep your chin up!
Steve
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Barbra
It's four in the morning here in Australia...couldn''t sleep'then lay there thinking about what I needed to do with WA...gets up to read your post...Boy does this post resonate with my journey
I to spent years online trying to figure it all out...then found WA went premium the fell by the way side...went looking for another quick fix get me rich scheme...another year passes and i'm back again...joined two weeks ago and again signed up for premium.
Crazy stuff i know!!! Had i stuck to my guns the first time round i would have been much closer to my dream. But then what's the point in looking at what could have been?
I think its only through the contrast of knowing what you don't want is when you get closer to knowing what you do want!.
And really at the end of the day its also in the journey not just the destination! It's so true what you say...were always looking for the quick microwave fix...anything that takes longer than two minutes is ...way too long. But that's the way of society today!
I encourage everyone on this entrepreneurial journey to read the book ""Mastery"" by George Leonard. Here's the opening chapter on the definition of Mastery:
""It resists definition yet can be instantly recognised. It comes in many varieties,yet follows certain un-changing laws. It brings rich rewards,yet is not really a goal or a destination but rather a process, a journey. We call this journey Mastery.
All i can say Barbra is your on the journey of Mastery! everything else is just fools gold! keep on trucking Gal your doin just fine
Marcus
Het..thanks for the post! you have inspired me today and i dare say many others on this journey!
Thank you. I'm glad you were encouraged. I did a similar thing as you. I actually joined WA well over a year ago and quit. I lost the two websites I was working on but there was barely anything on them anyway. I also went looking for the "next great thing" only to end up back here, a premium member, more determined than ever before in my life. So I've really only been taking this seriously for five months, which isn't all that long really. All we can do is just keep on keeping on! :)