As I have been working this week I have had many reminders in my life and business that patience and persistence pays dividends. In our current society of instant gratification it can be increasingly difficult to have the discipline to keep going even when we don’t see immediate results. I know that there are many points in my life and business when I have and do feel frustration. I feel like I am not making progress . When I get to these points I really have to examine how far I have actually come and do an honest assessment of all the seeds I have planted.
What have you been working towards in your life where you just don’t seem to be seeing the results of your hard work? When this happens, do you give up? Take a step back? Or do you persist? If you give up too soon you may miss your tipping point. According to Malcom Gladwell the tipping point is “ that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire” In fact, he has written a book about this phenomenon called “The Tipping Point”. So if you have a business and want to be successful your tipping point would be when you start to see your sales dramatically increasing.
Of course I want to clarify that there are points that quitting is the best option. I am not suggesting that you neve give up on anything. I do belive that sometimes it is appropriate to quit. Only you truly know if you are quitting because you know that things will not change despite all your best efforts , or if you are simply feeling discouraged. So how do you know if it’s time to quit or you are getting to the tipping point? It’s important to know because you definitely don’t want to quit before reaching your tipping point.
- Take a step back. When you are in the middle of situation or problem it is usually much more difficult to look at it objectively. Stepping back and taking a break and then coming back to the situation changes your perspective and solutions/clarity follow. Then you can be honest with yourself about your current situation. Are you holding on to something because you are afraid to let go or are you just tired and need a break?
- Write it down. Once you have taken a step back and re-examined your situation the next step is to write. Take some time to write a list of all the things you are done and accomplished, the true progress towards goal or objective.
- Prioritize Action. Now that you have written down all the things you have done and accomplished you can review the list and see what has been working for you and what has not. See where you have made progress and other places where you have not moved at all. Now you can brainstorm some new action steps and move forward with these steps and continue the rest until you reach your tipping point. If you look at your list and see absolutely no progress then it may be time to be honest with yourself and change your goal (quit or modify your goal).
After you take these steps allow everything to sit overnight and the right decision for you will be clear. I encourage you to keep going, you may be on the verge of a tipping point.
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