Have you ever started something new and felt exhausted and felt like giving up?
Maybe you had a brilliant idea of learning to play the guitar. It would sound so cool to be able to whip out your guitar at the beach or host people over and play music for them. It sounds so dreamy and fascinating, so you go to the store, buy a guitar, and find guitar lessons.
Only to start the first class and want to quit.
We human beings know that learning or doing anything new takes time and effort. It was hard when we first learned to walk, to bike, to swim, and to drive. Everything is hard at first, yet as kids, we are more open to that challenge. As we grow older, though, we somehow tend to forget that starting something new is not easy.
Don’t Give Up
Before beginning something new, be prepared for the challenges in advance. Expect hiccups. Expect times when you feel discouraged, or you want to give up. For example, if you want to start a business that helps you be financially free and have more time for yourself, know that at first you probably will have to give more time to the business.
But by preparing yourself for the challenges and struggles in advance, you will not be as thrown off balance when the hard days happen. The most important part about doing anything new is making the commitment before you begin to not give up, no matter how hard it gets – because it will get hard before it gets easy!
Stay Consistent
The next step to working through the hard part and reaching the easy is to stay consistent. Let’s say you want to hit a fitness goal. It might be hard, but you must show up every day in order to get the results you want. The same goes for learning a new language; if you just study it once a month, chances are you won’t retain much of it. You have to be consistent. Aim for working towards your goal every day, or at least a couple of times a week.
Track Your Improvements
In order to keep the motivation high, even through difficult times, it’s helpful to track your progress. Maybe your goal is to run 5 miles in 50 minutes, but right now it takes you more than an hour. Start tracking your progress every day to see your improvement. Tracking your progress is not just limited to the tangible. For example, if you have a service-based business, you can track how confident you were on a sales call. Every little improvement counts, even if it is in the mind.
Focus On 1%
With each day that you work towards your goal, focus on improving by the tiniest bit possible. As long as you improve every day, even if it is just 1%, you are headed in the right direction.
It Is Worth It
As you keep working towards your goals and push through difficulties, soon what was once difficult for you will become second nature. Think about how you first learned to drive; it was probably stressful, chaotic, and complicated! And now, you can listen to music, have a conversation, and you reach your destination without even realizing it. That’s when all the effort you put in becomes worth it. So, keep going, stay consistent, focus on your improvements, and most of all, don’t give up!
