"Your work is going to fill a large part
of
your life, and the only way to be truly
satisfied is to do what you believe is great
work. And the only way to do great work is
to love what you do. If you haven't found it
yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with
all matters of the heart,...you'll know when
you find it." -- Steve Jobs
By Craig Ballantyne
Recently I had a coaching call with one of my Executive clients. We'll call my client, "D." They run a $20 million dollar per year business that has helped hundreds of thousands of people change their lives for the better, and yet D was overwhelmed, stressed out, and ready to give up.
And even though we don't have the exact same problems as someone running a $20 million dollar business, we know the feeling of being stretched beyond capacity.
D thought it would be easier if they could just run away. To give up the responsibilities that they now had that had taken them away from what they loved doing in the first place. D would be free of the never-ending deadlines and the constant barrage of requests from people that wanted to take some of their time, energy and resources.
D wanted freedom from managing people, supervising large projects, or running the household staff. It was all becoming too much. In fact, D's exact quote was...
"Sometimes Craig, I think about shutting the business down, selling our house, and buying a simple place in the countryside - you can buy a beautiful piece of property for a modest amount of money in my state - and just living off our savings until I eventually have to do something again."
I smiled.
You know how many times I think something along the same lines?
Just the other day, I was visiting my old family farm after a couple of days of intense filming of my latest workout programs. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for mid-November, and it was perfect for walking through the recently harvested cornfields. It was peaceful, very peaceful. Far from the hustle and bustle of Toronto with the 4 a.m. car alarms, 24-7 traffic, late-night yelling drunks, and insane drivers (and all that in one of the nicer areas of the big city).
As I was packed up old Bally the Dog in the back seat of my rental car to bring him back to the big city, I thought to myself, "What's the worst case scenario in my life? What if I didn't go back?"
Let's say my business blew up.
Let's imagine that I lost all my money, all of my relationships, all my business contacts and even my email list.
What would happen if I were down and out and alone?
Where would I be?
The answer came to me:
I'd end up living in a simple home in the beautiful countryside, with space for the dog to run around, and all the time in the world to read the dozens of books I've ordered from Amazon that I currently have no time to read.
Essentially, I'd be living out high school again. And that wasn't all that bad.
WHOOOOSH.
Away went the stress because my worse case scenario is the best case scenario for 95% of the world's population (if not more).
As is yours.
But that's not the lesson...
The BIG lesson is that almost everyone thinks of quitting sometimes.
Over a year ago I wrote an article about my business failures, and about how Donald Trump was once not only broke, but in debt to the tune of billions of dollars.
One of my friends, one of the most successful people I know, responded to the article and thanked me for writing it. I didn't even know he was on my email list, but he said he was getting sick of certain negative aspects of his business, and thought - briefly - of instituting a scorched-earth strategy, shutting his business down, and retiring to ski all day.
But as he read in my email, despite the extremely negative circumstances, Trump didn't quit. And so neither did my friend.
However, he DID think about it. We all do. We all go through tough times.
And so we must all crush that voice of resistance in our minds.
Now I'll be the first to admit, the voice of resistance is always around for me. As it is for my client, D. We both come from very humble backgrounds and we now make more in weeks than our parents did in a year. When you accomplish that, you'll have days where you'll think, "That's enough."
But you can't quit like that because there is too much work to do, too many other people to help, to many personal revolutions to start. So on our coaching call we worked through D's problems, and I always work through mine on my own or with the help of ETR Publisher, Matt Smith.
We all must choose to solve these problems because we've committed to "Turning Pro," as Steven Pressfield has told us to do in his book of the same name. And we follow his advice and continue to fight The Resistance every day.
Sure, both D and I would love to retire to our country retreats, and write about whatever topic we want to whenever we want to, without the stress of deadlines or constant nagging from editors or partners.
We would feel like we were free...
...but the feeling would not last.
Because soon we'd realize that what we've gained in freedom, we've lost in value and worth. What we do - and by we I mean everyone anywhere struggling to build a business or career that adds value to the world - is important to others.
It's not about us.
It's about delivering hope, relief, and love to the people that look to us to end REAL problems. Whether your daily value is added to people trying to get out of debt, raise better children, stop smoking, lose weight, organize their life, or be a better person in any form, delivering your information and adding value to the world is more important than our selfish desire to run away from the stress.
So no matter what business obstacle has gotten you down, no matter what seemingly insurmountable hurdle is in your way, and no matter how frustrated you might be with the snail's pace of progress; remember that this is not about you and your worries, it's about fixing other people's problems.
When you realize that, you'll be energized. Because one thankful email or one kind Facebook comment that says, "Hey, thanks for your help, I couldn't have done it without you," will be enough to keep you going through the deepest dip.
And when you keep going, you'll keep helping. As you help, you'll grow and become better. As you get better, you'll help more people. As you help more people, you'll hear more positive feedback. And this fuels you through the dips, through the hard times, and through the slow grinds.
Never stop, never give up, never run away and never give in to The Resistance.
We all go through tough times. But we all get through it with social support, wisdom from our mentors, and mostly, by taking action.
"Do the work," as Steven Pressfield says, no matter how tough the work is.
It's what really matters in the end.
Recently I had a coaching call with one of my Executive clients. We'll call my client, "D." They run a $20 million dollar per year business that has helped hundreds of thousands of people change their lives for the better, and yet D was overwhelmed, stressed out, and ready to give up.
And even though we don't have the exact same problems as someone running a $20 million dollar business, we know the feeling of being stretched beyond capacity.
D thought it would be easier if they could just run away. To give up the responsibilities that they now had that had taken them away from what they loved doing in the first place. D would be free of the never-ending deadlines and the constant barrage of requests from people that wanted to take some of their time, energy and resources.
D wanted freedom from managing people, supervising large projects, or running the household staff. It was all becoming too much. In fact, D's exact quote was...
"Sometimes Craig, I think about shutting the business down, selling our house, and buying a simple place in the countryside - you can buy a beautiful piece of property for a modest amount of money in my state - and just living off our savings until I eventually have to do something again."
I smiled.
You know how many times I think something along the same lines?
Just the other day, I was visiting my old family farm after a couple of days of intense filming of my latest workout programs. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for mid-November, and it was perfect for walking through the recently harvested cornfields. It was peaceful, very peaceful. Far from the hustle and bustle of Toronto with the 4 a.m. car alarms, 24-7 traffic, late-night yelling drunks, and insane drivers (and all that in one of the nicer areas of the big city).
As I was packed up old Bally the Dog in the back seat of my rental car to bring him back to the big city, I thought to myself, "What's the worst case scenario in my life? What if I didn't go back?"
Let's say my business blew up.
Let's imagine that I lost all my money, all of my relationships, all my business contacts and even my email list.
What would happen if I were down and out and alone?
Where would I be?
The answer came to me:
I'd end up living in a simple home in the beautiful countryside, with space for the dog to run around, and all the time in the world to read the dozens of books I've ordered from Amazon that I currently have no time to read.
Essentially, I'd be living out high school again. And that wasn't all that bad.
WHOOOOSH.
Away went the stress because my worse case scenario is the best case scenario for 95% of the world's population (if not more).
As is yours.
But that's not the lesson...
The BIG lesson is that almost everyone thinks of quitting sometimes.
Over a year ago I wrote an article about my business failures, and about how Donald Trump was once not only broke, but in debt to the tune of billions of dollars.
One of my friends, one of the most successful people I know, responded to the article and thanked me for writing it. I didn't even know he was on my email list, but he said he was getting sick of certain negative aspects of his business, and thought - briefly - of instituting a scorched-earth strategy, shutting his business down, and retiring to ski all day.
But as he read in my email, despite the extremely negative circumstances, Trump didn't quit. And so neither did my friend.
However, he DID think about it. We all do. We all go through tough times.
And so we must all crush that voice of resistance in our minds.
Now I'll be the first to admit, the voice of resistance is always around for me. As it is for my client, D. We both come from very humble backgrounds and we now make more in weeks than our parents did in a year. When you accomplish that, you'll have days where you'll think, "That's enough."
But you can't quit like that because there is too much work to do, too many other people to help, to many personal revolutions to start. So on our coaching call we worked through D's problems, and I always work through mine on my own or with the help of ETR Publisher, Matt Smith.
We all must choose to solve these problems because we've committed to "Turning Pro," as Steven Pressfield has told us to do in his book of the same name. And we follow his advice and continue to fight The Resistance every day.
Sure, both D and I would love to retire to our country retreats, and write about whatever topic we want to whenever we want to, without the stress of deadlines or constant nagging from editors or partners.
We would feel like we were free...
...but the feeling would not last.
Because soon we'd realize that what we've gained in freedom, we've lost in value and worth. What we do - and by we I mean everyone anywhere struggling to build a business or career that adds value to the world - is important to others.
It's not about us.
It's about delivering hope, relief, and love to the people that look to us to end REAL problems. Whether your daily value is added to people trying to get out of debt, raise better children, stop smoking, lose weight, organize their life, or be a better person in any form, delivering your information and adding value to the world is more important than our selfish desire to run away from the stress.
So no matter what business obstacle has gotten you down, no matter what seemingly insurmountable hurdle is in your way, and no matter how frustrated you might be with the snail's pace of progress; remember that this is not about you and your worries, it's about fixing other people's problems.
When you realize that, you'll be energized. Because one thankful email or one kind Facebook comment that says, "Hey, thanks for your help, I couldn't have done it without you," will be enough to keep you going through the deepest dip.
And when you keep going, you'll keep helping. As you help, you'll grow and become better. As you get better, you'll help more people. As you help more people, you'll hear more positive feedback. And this fuels you through the dips, through the hard times, and through the slow grinds.
Never stop, never give up, never run away and never give in to The Resistance.
We all go through tough times. But we all get through it with social support, wisdom from our mentors, and mostly, by taking action.
"Do the work," as Steven Pressfield says, no matter how tough the work is.
It's what really matters in the end.
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