I have a chance to sit down with a friend recently and learn about her recent change from employee status to someone who is totally in charge of her income now (sales professional).
It is easy to get started, but sustainability is another issue. While sharing with this friend of mine, we talked about the topic of quitting and I share with her 2 principles (to be exact, 2 questions) I follow to determine whether something is worth doing anymore or not.
The 1st Check – Are you still doing what you love?
If you are now struggling and wondering whether you should stick on to the things that you are currently doing, I would suggest to ask yourself this question – ‘Are you still doing what you love?’
This question is even more important if you are doing this full-time. There are not many people who are doing what they on a love full-time basis. Hence, if you are in love with the things that you do and the services that you provide, you are certainly on the right track.
Now, it is not enough just to do the things you love. You still need to ask the following question to give you clarity.
The 2nd Check – Are you making progress?
A very important measure in whatever things that we do is tracking and keep reflecting on what we do so that we can achieve better results over time. And the second question is to ask yourself is – ‘Are you making progress?’.
A lot of people think that they are stuck at certain point mainly because they do not have something to measure their progress. Clarity only comes when you start to look into statistics such as profits, satisfaction and freedom. Allow me to elaborate below:
1. Profits
The most common reason for people to do something new is the money. Hence, profits is a good way to measure progress.
2. Satisfaction
This is what I call the value behind the things that we do. If you give it some thoughts, you will figure that most of the things that we do are not for ourselves, instead, most of the things that we do is for the greater benefit of the people around us. A business exists because it helps the customers to be successful. A person exists because of his/her relationship with people.
When you create value to your target market, you will get satisfaction (feedback / testimonials from your clients).
3. Freedom
Actually the main reason for people starting businesses or breaking new grounds is the pursue of freedom.
To me, you are making good progress if you find yourself in better shape in terms of profits / satisfaction / freedom month after month =)
1st Check – ‘NO’, 2nd Check – ‘NO’
If you answer NO for both questions, I think it may be a good time to quit and rethink about your approach. There are definitely other ways to achieve what you want. There is nothing wrong in quitting, sometimes, this brings you closer to success!
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate. – Thomas Watson, Sr
Never Give up!
If you are still doing what you love and is making progress, I see no reason why you should quit. In fact, this indicates that you are on the right track!
If you are still unable to arrive at any conclusion after asking the questions, then this is a very good time to follow your instinct. If you feel that this is still the right thing to do, most probably it is =)
As an ending to this blog post, I would like to share the following clip with you. This is one of my favorite song from Yolanda Adams. I listen to this every morning and when I go jogging, you will love it!
