Business is tough. How to avoid the traps of despair and overwhelm, and learn to love the journey.
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Business isn’t easy, especially in the beginning.
Whether you’re trying to conquer the corporate climb, build your business from scratch, or take over a family business, business can be tough.
There are new things to learn, new skills to master, and new waters to navigate. This can be overwhelming at times. Sometimes — like when nothing is motivating you — things can be underwhelming. That’s just as big of an issue.
I spend a lot of time in the entrepreneur space, where people often brag about how little they sleep. “Sleep is for the weak,” they’ll say.
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I constantly face these challenges, as do my ambitious friends. Even my successful mentors run up against these obstacles. It’s nice to know we’re not alone.
But how do we get through these tough periods?
Fall in love with the climb.
The sleepless nights.
Lack of sleep is often worn as a badge of honor.
I spend a lot of time in the entrepreneur space, where people often brag about how little they sleep. “Sleep is for the weak,” they’ll say. Or the boasting will be more subtle, like when someone says, “Tired,” when you ask about their day.
Unless your day is tired, I personally prefer that you don’t tell me “tired.”
When people tell me that they haven’t slept much, I’m supposed to assume that they’re tired because they were up all night working. Maybe they were. I work long nights sometimes too.
But that’s not always the reason I’m up so late.
I lose sleep because I’m afraid I won’t achieve my goals.
Self-doubt is sinister.
To a degree, I think most of us acknowledge moments we doubt ourselves. Maybe you doubt yourself when faced with a new challenge. Or maybe you begin to doubt yourself when you’re reared to do things you aren’t got at.
Whenever you feel it, you feel the weight it brings. You feel heavy, but still ready to run away or quit.
Personally, self-doubt creeps in at night.
I doubt myself when I think of the debt I’m carrying to grow my business. I imagine the day when I can stop eating tuna and noodles. There’s doubt when I think about the new proposal I need to craft for my next client. I feel doubt when I think about how my parents came from little but have found success. I’m wracked with doubt when I wonder if my haters are right about me.
And I’m full of doubt when I think about how successful I’m supposed to be.
It’s possible to be scared of our own success, kind of.
You’re ambitious like me, which is why I’m positive you know what I mean.
We think about our definition of success. We think of what we want, our goals, and the work we put in to reach that point.
And we’re afraid of the real possibility that we might not achieve that success.
To really open our own chances of success, we must change our mindset surrounding self-doubt and fear of not being successful enough.
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Sometimes I’ll imagine my future self becoming the person I didn’t aspire to be. I can see myself doing things I don’t want to do for people I don’t like, all while making less money than I wanted to make. What can I say? Self-doubt is wicked enough to do this to me.
Nobody is really afraid to be successful. In reality, we’re afraid of not being successful enough.
Enough is enough.
To really open our own chances of success, we must change our mindset surrounding self-doubt and fear of not being successful enough.
It’s time to fall in love with the climb.
Success is a mountain.
However, success isn’t the top. The top is the product of a good climb. So fall in love with the climb.
When I thought of success as the top, I would go to bed defeated nearly every night. Even good days would hurt at night. The top kept getting farther and farther away as I climbed. Eventually, I began to question if I even belonged on the mountain.
After a particularly tough day, I stared at my bedroom ceiling. I was drained, but sleepless. Then I asked myself a simple question that made me love the climb.
I thought, What if what I want isn’t cool when I finally get it?
I thought about how silly I’d be to work years to achieve something, only for it to be out of style once I achieve it. This reminded me of when a friend’s father–a mountain climber–told me why he’s climbed so many mountains.
If climbers don’t love the climb enough, they’ll peak and descend. The same could happen to our businesses and careers.
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He said, “My favorite feeling in the world comes when I’m standing on top of the mountain. But that feeling fades. Many of my friends stopped climbing once they reached the peaks they wanted. The ones like me who keep climbing have fallen in love with everything before the peak.”
Before any climber reaches the top, they put in months of preparation and training. Then, of course, they must climb.
If climbers don’t love the climb enough, they’ll peak and descend. The same could happen to our businesses and careers.
Deep in love with the climb.
The climb is every night cut short by work. The climb is graduating from cardboard noodles to three items on the dollar menu. The climb is getting rejected. The climb is day-after-day doing what others won’t to become great.
When you’re deep in love with the climb, self-doubt turns into your fuel to keep going despite any obstacle you face.
Fall in love with the climb, and the top will come. Let it surprise you.
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Photo: Unsplash/Nicolai Traasdahl Tarp