This shall pass too. It is a philosophical solution for it. Just in case.
Let me share with you one of my techniques, I use in my coaching practice and personal life (specifically surfing & dating)
Recently, one of my group coaching clients was putting a lot of hours into developing a business website, as well as working on a PR and social media strategy. She committed to 40-hour weeks and managed to put in the time. Yet, a month later, she felt like this never ending process of hard work was not giving her the business results she hoped for. It would be fair to say we have all felt this way and the truth is that this is the hardest moment to stay motivated. There is no payoff in sight, no results to celebrate. And somehow it is the most essential time to continue getting things done.
But how do we do this?
My favorite trick is to have a deadline to suffering in your mind so you know where the finish line is.
When I was learning how to surf, it was so hard on so many levels that I could not imagine putting myself through it for the rest of my life. So what I said to myself was this – take 20 private classes with a surfing instructor and if after those 20 classes I still can’t pop (a surfing term only cool people get!) then I AM GOING TO QUIT the surfing dream. It was sad to think about the failure but I reminded myself the biggest failure is not trying.
Everytime I failed, I recognized that at least I was trying, I would also remind myself it was a few more classes before I could quit. And then five years later, I popped while surfing in Costa Rica. It was a life changing experience and worth waiting for the hard work to pay off.
With my coaching client I suggested the same – I asked her to give herself a timeline after which she was free to walk away from her business. It isn’t an easy question to answer. You need to be honest with yourself and tell yourself I will do XYZ for XY months and see if it works and if not then you will need to come up with a new approach or be ready to quit and move on. Moving on does not mean defeat, it means you tried and have learnt and will live to try something new. Use timelines for your hard tasks and remember, being able to positively manage hard times and being able to stick around when things get tough is the path to becoming the best version of ourselves.
