If you say this 1 dumb phrase, you will ALWAYS fail
About a month and a half into my online writing journey, a very dark thought slipped into my head.
It’s a thought that has no doubt sunk untold millions of wannabe entrepreneurs, and often multiple times throughout their lives.
That was certainly the case for me.
It’s scary to think about in retrospect.
Had I caved to that dark thought back in October of 2022, I would have cost myself close to $60,000 in writing, YouTube, and KDP royalties I’ve earned since then.
More importantly, I would have cost myself a feeling of pride and purpose.
Who knows, feeling like a failure again and at loose ends, I may have gone back to daily, heavy drinking.
This was the cycle:
I’d think: “I’m going to clean up my life, get super disciplined, and start a business.”
I’d go hard on designing a logo, building a website, and writing my first batch of content.
And then, when things didn’t skyrocket within a month or two, 1 stupid phrase would creep in and ruin everything.
It happened again and again and again.
Commit to committing
Most entrepreneurs will tell you it usually takes, at minimum, 2–5 years to achieve any notable success.
The problem is, most people have short attention spans nowadays and quickly sink themselves with negative self-talk.
The late, great, bestselling author Tom Clancy once wrote that “an overnight success is 10 years in the making,” and yet most of us can’t make it 10 days in service of our goals and dreams.
The reality is that you shouldn’t start anything unless you’re willing to battle through 2 years of resistance before you start seeing green shoots.
It’s frustrating to acknowledge that in retrospect.
Yes, I’ve managed to make $60,000 on my side business, but my goal in building one has never been about money.
It’s been about freedom.
And had I figured out earlier than Age 41 just how far one stupid line was throwing me off track, who knows … I might just be a retired multimillionaire by now.
Never accept his phrase as truth
So there I was in just Month 2 of my writing journey.
I’d gotten off to a quick start on my chosen platform, climbing into the top 6% of writers in a little over a month.
But then, I hit the inevitable first plateau and then backslide.
Succeeding very quickly can actually be really detrimental, because it sets unrealistic expectations for long-term growth.
Anyway, on that particular day I woke up, checked my suddenly extremely disappointing stats, and thought to myself … “What am I even doing here … this is dumb.”
“This is dumb.”
There are a million variations on that attitude, but they all come down to a belief that what you’re doing isn’t worth your time.
“Why would I think I could succeed at this?”
“This is immature, why am I doing this?”
“I was silly to believe this could work, I should be doing something else with my time.”
The problem is you don’t — you can’t — know whether something is a waste of your time unless you give the truth long enough to reveal itself.
This is resistance rearing its ugly head at the first sign of opportunity, and it’s something you need to learn how to get past or you’ll always be disappointed with your results, whether they be financial, physical, or mental.
Believe me, I know from personal experience.
It’s frustrating to look at the time you’ve put into something and not receive the return you think it deserves.
And honestly, maybe it won’t have proven to be the best use of your time.
But at least you’ll know that … unlike someone like me, who still laments pissing away the great ideas and wondering to this day whether or not they would have served up the life of my dreams had I just waited it out.
How to escape the “this is dumb” trap
The only way to escape the “this is dumb” trap is to focus on process over results.
Your goal should never be to “make $1,000 per month writing and making videos”.
So much of that is outside of your control.
What process can you control?
How about “write for 20 minutes per day for 30 days straight.”
That’s something achievable and within your control.
A process-based goal removes some of the potential negativity because you aren’t measuring yourself against stats or earnings, you’re just … “writing for 20 minutes per day for 30 days straight”.
If what you write is good and there’s a big enough audience for it, the money will take care of itself eventually.
That’s what I learned in my second month of writing, when the pull of “this is dumb” almost dragged me under for the umpteenth time.
Whether it’s building a business, getting super fit, meditating, whatever … resolve today, for the first time in your life, to grab a branch instead of allowing yourself to get swept under.
You might just be shocked at how much you can achieve.
Do you cave and say “This is stupid” before achieving your health and wealth goals?
What negative self-talk sinks your efforts?
Let me know in the comments!