Hrvatska verzija dolje ↓
So, here I am on Monday at 21:42h struggling like never before to publish yet another weekly blog post. Writing and publishing my blogs is actually the easiest part of all of my job. It only takes couple of hours of my time, and topics are about who I am, my life philosophy. They are a part of my core being, my values and personal experience which I don’t have to think much about, they are always present with me. So, logically there should not be much of a problem to just put it all together in an article which is not so long after all. I also have the whole week to write it, any time I want to. No one can really see how this can be difficult. Including me.
This is all pretty and beautiful in theory. In practice life happens. In practice you have had so much other work the whole week that you have postponed it all for the weekend. During the weekend you felt the shittiest possible and couldn’t seem to be able to write a word of your article of the week. You said to yourself: ‘It just takes couple of hours, I will do it on Monday’. On Monday of course because Murphy was such an intelligent pessimist, you had the longest and the worst day of your life. After everything at the end of the day you are facing a dilemma again – go to sleep and fail yourself or suck it up and deliver?
This dilemma for some people might be easy. They would say – it is just a blog, it is not a job, my money or survival does not depend on it, so I should just not publish it this time, or I will publish it later this week, it doesn’t matter if I promised it to be on Tuesday.
For me, there are several problems with this idea. First, if I do not deliver, I am letting myself down. Second, if I don’t deliver I am letting my readers down. Third, if I do not deliver I am sending myself a message that I cannot trust myself, because I keep breaking my own promises. Fourth, if I do not deliver I am letting myself give up every time the things are hard and every time ‘I don’t feel like’. Fifth, if I do not deliver and let myself give up every time I don’t feel like, I am clearly showing I do not have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
People admire entrepreneurs. They think how wonderful it is not to have to deal with moody colleagues, and arrogant boss, or a rude client. They think how great it is to be able to be your own boss and create your own schedule, have flexibility in what and when you are doing things. They imagine you can choose every single thing you are doing and all of it is giving you immense joy. They think that you can do stuff only when you feel like, and simply not do them when you don’t feel like.
Reality is a bit different because you do not do only things that you feel like and you do not do them only when you feel like. You still very much have to deal with all the administrative stuff that you hate, you still have to do projects that you don’t like, you still have to deal with moody partners/investors/clients, etc. You do not do things only when you feel like because of several reasons. One of the most important reasons is that you need to keep delivering good quality products or services to your clients. If you want anyone to do business with you, you need to be reliable, trustworthy and deliver on your promises. Every. Single. Time.
When you are an entrepreneur, everything you will ever achieve or not achieve depends entirely and only on you. How good your products will be, how reliable your clients will see you to be, how much motivation you can pull out of your sleeve to stay put and work. Whether you will succeed or fail will depend entirely on your willpower to deliver the product every single time you promised to do so.
However, this is not true only for entrepreneurs, that is true for everyone of us who ever wants to achieve anything in life, no matter how big or how small it is. For every single thing in life you want, you either have what it takes to get it, or you don’t. If you let yourself give up every time it is hard and every time you don’t feel like, you can rest assured that you don’t have what it takes and I can guarantee you, you will never have what you want. In anything you desire to do you can succeed only if you consistently keep showing up and doing the work.
The only thing that can actually help you is to train yourself to become stronger than yourself. Stronger than your whiny self who ‘doesn’t feel like’, stronger than your lazy self who right now ‘needs to’ watch TV instead of working, stronger than your scared self who ‘cannot’ do this. You can succeed only if you train yourself to become stronger than your weaknesses, your vices and your excuses.
With a strong willpower you can build anything you want in life. The only way to build it is to not give up when you don’t feel like. Stay stronger than your excuses, and never ever allow yourself to break your promises. If you have promised to deliver things on Tuesday, make sure you deliver them on Tuesday, no matter what.
Do not be afraid that you will never ever be allowed to break the rule. You will be allowed down the road to bend or break the rules many times if you feel like, but do not allow yourself to do it at the beginning. Make a little game out out if to see how long you can go delivering constant results. If you let yourself bend the rules too early, you will hit the danger of not being able to get back on track because your routine is not strong enough.
No matter how you feel like, no matter how tired you are, no matter how many more interesting things you could be doing right now, do not allow yourself to let yourself down. Consistency is the mother of success. You become what you consistently do. If you allow yourself to give up every time you don’t feel like, this will become your constant. Instead of building resistance and willpower for success you will build procrastination and adaptability for failure.
As you work towards building your routine and your consistency, you are looking forward to becoming so strong that one day you can finally bend that rule and not deliver. After all, you deserve a break now after you kept going for so long. The most amazing thing you will find out at that point is that you actually don’t want to bend the rule and not deliver. Together with your willpower you have built your integrity. Integrity is such a powerful reward in its own right. Once you achieve it, you will never ever by your own choice want to fail yourself again.
Uspjeti u poslu i uspjeti u životu svodi se na iste stvari
Evo mene, u ponedjeljak u 21:42h boreći se kao nikada do sada da objavim još jedan tjedni blog. Pisati i objavljivati blogove zapravo je najjednostavniji dio mog posla. Zahtjeva samo par sati mog vremena i teme su o onome što ja jesam, o mojoj filozofiji života. One su dio suštine mog bića, moje vrijednosti i osobna iskustva o kojima ne moram puno promišljati, ona su uvijek prisutna sa mnom. Logično, ne bi trebalo biti puno problema da sve to skupim u jedan članak koji i nije tako dugačak na kraju krajeva. Također, imam cijeli tjedan vremena da ga napišem, kad god hoću. Nitko ne vidi kako to može biti teško. Uključujući mene samu.
To je sve lijepo i super u teoriji. U praksi, desi se život. U praksi imala si toliko posla preko tjedna da si sve pomaknula za vikend. Tokom vikenda osjećala si se najgore moguće i nisi mogla napisati riječ svog tjednog članka. Rekla si si ‘Treba mi samo par sati, napisati ću ga u ponedjeljak’. U ponedjeljak naravno, jer je Murphy bio vrlo inteligentan pesimist, imala si najduži i najgori dan u životu. Nakon svega na kraju dana suočavaš se ponovo s dilemom – ići spavati ili prestati sa žalopojkama i odraditi posao?
Ova dilema bi za neke ljude bila jednostavna. Rekli bi – to je samo blog, nije posao, moj novac ili preživljavanje ne ovisi o njemu. Jednostavno neću objaviti blog ovaj put ili ću ga objaviti kasnije ovog tjedna, nema veza što sam ga obećao u utorak.
Za mene, postoji nekoliko problema s tom idejom. Prvo, ako ne pokažem rezultat, razočarala sam samu sebe. Drugo, ako ne pokažem rezultat, razočarala sam svoje čitatelje. Treće, ako ne pokažem rezultat šaljem samoj sebi poruku da si ne mogu vjerovati jer kršim svoja vlastita obećanja. Četvrto, ako ne pokažem rezultat, dopuštam si da odustanem svaki put kad stvari postanu teške i svaki put kad ‘mi se ne da’. Peto, ako ne pokažem rezultat i dopustim si da odustanem svaki put kad mi se ne da, jasno si pokazujem da nemam ono što je potrebno kako bih bila poduzetnica.
Ljudi se dive poduzetnicima. Misle kako je divno ne morati gledati svoje namrgođene kolege, arogantnog šefa ili bezobrazne klijente. Misle kako je divno biti svoj vlastiti šef i kreirati svoj vlastiti raspored, biti fleksibilan u onome što radiš i kada to radiš. Zamišljaju da možeš odabrati svaku stvar koju radiš i da ti svaka od njih pričinjava iznimno zadovoljstvo. Misle da možeš raditi samo onda kad ti se da, i jednostavno ne raditi kad ti se ne da.
Stvarnost je malo drugačija jer ne radiš samo stvari koje ti se daju i ne radiš ih samo onda kad ti se da. Još uvijek se itekako moraš baviti svim onim administrativnim stvarima koje mrziš, još uvijek trebaš raditi i na projektima koji ti se ne sviđaju, još uvijek se trebaš baviti namrgođenim partnerima/investitorima/klijentima, itd. Ne radiš stvari samo kad ti se da zbog nekoliko razloga. Jedan od najvažnijih razloga je da trebaš konstantno izručivati proizvode/usluge visoke kvalitete. Ako želiš da itko surađuje s tobom, trebaš biti pouzdan, osoba kojoj se može vjerovati i koja održava svoja obećanja. Svaki. Put.
Kad si poduzetnik, sve što ćeš ikada postići ili ne postići ovisi potpuno i samo o tebi. Koliko će dobri biti tvoji proizvodi, koliko će tvoji klijenti misliti da si pouzdan, koliko motivacije možeš izvući iz rukava kako bi stajao fokusiran i radio. Hoćeš li uspjeti ili ne ovisiti će u potpunosti o snazi tvoje volje da dostaviš svaki put ono što si obećao.
Međutim, sve ovo ne vrijedi samo za poduzetnike, već za svakoga tko želi postići bilo što u životu, bez obzira koliko veliko ili malo to bilo. Za svaku stvar koju želiš, ili imaš ono što je potrebno ili nemaš. Ako si dopustiš da odustaneš svaki put kad je teško i kad ti se ne da, budi siguran da nemaš ono što je potrebno i ja ti garantiram da nikada nećeš imati ono što želiš. U svemu što želiš možeš uspjeti samo ako konstantno nastaviš pojavljivati se i raditi.
Jedina stvar koja ti zapravo može pomoći je trenirati se da postaneš jači od samog sebe. Jači od svog cmizdravog sebe kojem ‘se ne da’, jači od svog lijenog sebe koji baš sada ‘treba’ gledati TV umjesto da to odradi, jači od svog uplašenog sebe koji to ‘ne može’. Možeš uspjeti samo ako se treniraš da postaneš jači od svojih slabosti, poroka i isprika.
S jakom snagom volje možeš izgraditi što god želiš u životu. Jedini način da to postigneš je ne odustati kad ti se ne da. Ostani jači od svojih isprika i nikada si ne dopusti da prekršiš svoja vlastita obećanja. Ako si obećao stvari u utorak, pokaži rezultate u utorak, bez obzira na sve.
Nemoj se bojati da nikada nećeš moći predahnuti i prekršiti to pravilo. Moći ćeš to pravilo zaobići ili prekršiti kasnije puno puta ako to želiš, ali nemoj si to dopustiti na početku. Pretvori to u malu igru gdje ćeš testirati koliko dugo možeš izdržati pokazujući uvijek konstantne rezultate. Ako si dopustiš zaobilaziti pravila prerano, riskiraš nemogućnost da se vratiš natrag u tu konstantu jer ti rutina nije dovoljno jako ukorijenjena.
Bez obzira kako se osjećaš, bez obzira koliko si umoran, bez obzira na sve interesantnije stvari koje bi sada mogao raditi, ne dopusti si da samog sebe razočaraš. Konzistentnost je majka uspjeha. S vremenom postaneš ono što konzistentno radiš. Ako si dopustiš da odustaneš svaki put kad ti se ne da, to će postati tvoja konstanta. Umjesto da gradiš otpornost i snagu volje za uspjeh, graditi ćeš odugovlačenje i prilagodljivost za neuspjeh.
Kako radiš naprema uspostavljanju rutine i konzistentnosti, veseliš se postati toliko jak kako bi jednog dana napokon mogao prekršiti to pravilo i ne pokazati rezultate. Nakon svega, zaslužuješ odmor nakon što si toliko dugo izdržao. Najnevjerojatnija stvar koju ćeš tada spoznati je da u tom trenutku nećeš uopće više htjeti odustati i prekršiti to pravilo. Zajedno sa snagom volje izgradio si i svoj integritet. Integritet je toliko snažna nagrada sama po sebi. Jednom kad je ostvariš, nikada više nećeš htjeti samovoljno samog sebe razočarati.