My son, who is officially an adult in a matter of days, is facing a small crisis: the project he’s working on is not going well, and he’s ready to give up, not only on the project but the career he was excited about not too long ago.
I can feel the horrible mixture of discouragement, disappointment, difficulty, and despair he must be feeling, because I’ve felt it too.
I’ve felt this punch in the gut whenever projects or new ventures didn’t go well.
I’ve given up, and felt the disappointment in myself.
And I’ve pushed through this discouragement and felt so much better. Pushing through was always better.
So I’m here to talk about how I push past what Seth Godin calls The Dip — that slump that we all hit when things get hard, which is (sometimes) before the place where things get great.
How do we know if we’re in a slump or if we should just quit? We don’t. There’s no way to know the future. There are times when there are a bunch of good indicators that you should quit — customers aren’t responding, the market doesn’t support your work, and there are better opportunities. But the feeling you have when you’re in a dip is not a good indicator that it’s time to quit.
The feeling wants you to quit, but often you shouldn’t. Because if you do, you’ll never get great at anything.
What do you do if you’re demotivated and disappointed? If things aren’t going well and you want to give up because they’re so hard? When you’re confused and overwhelmed?
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