"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.
