On your personal journey of self growth, healing and pursuing your goals you must be patient and believe in yourself that success is on your way.
It’s difficult to have motivation for something when you still haven’t seen the fruits of your labor. It can feel pointless or like it’s never going to happen. Or it can feel like you’re not doing enough because you see others get the results that you’ve been working hard for. For those feeling this way: keep going.
Believe in yourself when no one else does
As a child I remember hearing in school to believe in myself and thinking, duh, ofcourse I believe in myself (I thought I did). But I didn’t really get what it meant, and as I got older that optimism began to fade.
Now I get the importance of believing in yourself. For once I’m doing something that requires me to believe in myself. With trying anything new or pursuing a career, you need to be your #1 fan because no one is going to make sure you show up everyday. No one is going to cheer you on each day to get the work done. It’s up to you to make the commitment to something that isn’t certain. That’s why you have to believe in yourself, cause if you don’t then you’ll feel like you’re working towards nothing. But if you believe that you will achieve something great, you have something to work towards. Work like your success is certain to happen.
I have days where I feel discouraged about my blog. For my blog, it’s been a year and a half since I started and it’s not seeing the most rapid progress. A big part of me knows to keep going, and that good things come to those who wait. But damn, how long do I need to wait?? I remind myself to trust in God’s plan for me and know that everything will work out in my favor. I gotta let go of control and surrender to the unknown.
Delayed Gratification > Instant Gratification
Furthermore, I think what makes it harder to be patient is desiring instant gratification. We want to try something out and see success right away. But that’s not how things work, and if you hear the stories of highly successful people you’ll notice that many of them didn’t reach success so quickly. Many of them were rejected a bunch of times or had been working for years to gain success. Some people found success later on in their life and it turned out to be for the best. We are in the times of instant success with social media that it can be discouraging when it doesnt happen for us. It’s really uncommon to gain instant success and have it last, so don’t focus on the rare cases.
In order to achieve great things, time and effort needs to be put in. I strongly believe that with time and dedication things begin to unfold in ways we wouldn’t expect. But when they unfold, it will make so much sense and be perfect timing.
It’s better to try and fail than never try at all
If you’re trying to pursue something that’s risky or doesn’t have a certain outcome, it can be easy to give up. It doesn’t feel “safe” or “secure” to invest time and money into a business that may fail. But imagine if it doesn’t fail. A line that always stuck with me is, “Would you rather wonder ‘what if’ or know at least you tried?” I mean honestly, what’s the harm? It’s not time wasted if you’re working on something that is fun or interesting to you. And anyways, it’s okay to “fail”. Life is about experiencing the good, bad and everything in between. Wherever this blog takes me, I’m grateful that it serves as a creative outlet and a way to express myself.
Invest in Yourself
You can gain a lot of knowledge and experience from working on a skill or creative outlet. Even with money, it’s not a waste because you’re investing in yourself. Your mind, your body, whatever it may be. We spend money on bs all the time anyways. So spending some extra money on a class or tools is an investment on yourself (If you can afford it). Investing in yourself will always be worth the money.
Obviously if it’s not in your means to spend, then I totally get that and encourage you to find other ways to work on your craft/business. Steve Lacy made his first album on his phone and now look where he is. It’s possible y’all. Don’t let obstacles be a wall you can’t overcome, find a way around, over or under that shit. I don’t know what your situation is but nothing is impossible.
I’m going to end this post with this: what sets successful people apart is that they believed in themselves. They stayed true to themselves. They knew their potential and didn’t let failures define them. They kept going. I’m going to keep going, and I hope you do too. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read this. Have a great day/night <3