The Faithful Blogger

A

writer sets off to write his articles faithfully each day. He does his research and beats his goals each waking day. He builds his content and is satisfied with what is coming out of it. Then one day, he happens to check the Google Analytics of his blog. In a day, only 5 people have clicked on his link even though he has it displayed in all his social media channels. In split seconds, a voice speaks to his mind and tells him that there is no point of keeping this up. Nobody is appreciating my efforts anyway! Just quit it all up anyway! Discouragement is knocking incessantly on his door.

Seeking Fitness

It has been a few weeks since she started her exercise regimen. She has been consistent and faithful, not missing a day of exercise on her schedule. One day, she goes out as usual and for some reason, she does not feel up to it. She feels so heavy and like there is a plank of wood at her lower back. Her muscles still ache and today she is struggling so much to complete her jogging circuit. In that moment, a voice speaks to her mind ant tells her that it’s worthless. Nothing is happening. There is No change since the day you started. Just quit this altogether. Discouragement is knocking on her door incessantly.

Pursuit of a Worthy Cause

A visionary downloads a vision and starts pursuing it diligently. It has been close to 10 years down the line and there is no tangible impact on the ground. His family (out of a pure heart and of love) start to dissuade him from pursuing the dream. They claim that he is making the rest of the family anxious about his affairs. They tell him that he should accept to move in with a family member. The family member says that the condition is that he must first be willing to put aside his dreams and be committed to finding a job. Seeing that the family is genuine, something speaks to his mind and says “You know your family is right. Surely you have tried but have failed. There is nothing you have created for a decade. There are no earnings neither is there any indication of income coming. Just quit for a change is as good as rest. Discouragement is knocking on his door.

The Game Is Lost or Won in The Mind

Such situations are so many especially for the people who have dared to do something meaningful, something that matters to their hearts. But please notice the common denominator in all these aspects: the voice in the mind! Discouragement is sealed when we mentally accent to the impossibility brought about by what we perceive as the reality on the ground. Now, whether or not the impossibility is real, the mental accent to quitting hammers the last blow that makes discouragement reign supreme is the mental accent.

However, at times we might not know how close we have come to a breakthrough. We might not know (due to familiarity) how much progress we have made since the first day we started. Just the fact that we are not seeing the desired impact and results we want to give up altogether. It is the same reason why very many people do not take up some ventures because they cannot trace gain of money directly to these ventures. At some point we want a direct connection between our action and profit. That same mentality will make us quit when we can see no results added to our daily efforts. The following simple points will help us not to throw in the towel just yet.

1. Focus on Individuals, Not Crowds

It is true that the writer’s biggest joy is when a multitude of people are reading their works around the world. Probably, nothing is more rewarding that this to a true writer, not even the royalties they receive from writing their work. And so it is so easy for this writer to try and see what impact he is making by checking his Google Analytics. For the record, that tool is exceptionally awesome to give insight of how people are interacting with your blog. However, real impact is when you have just one individual who is faithfully following your writings and implementing your teachings.

For the writer, write for this one person, and although it is crazy to say, please forget about the crowds. As long as you are making a difference to this one, keep at it and do not stop. The same applies to many other visionaries whose impact is gauged by how many people you are inspiring, encouraging, instructing or mentoring. However, for visionaries whose metrics are purely on things such as:

• How many people downloaded it?
• How many pieces sold?
• How many people reached,

You need to revisit the process and tweak it for better results.

2. Focus on Building Your Momentum

I have said here severally that the biggest fight of your life is the fight of consistency. If you started working out and you are not seeing any results, at least for now rejoice not in the output, but in the faithfulness that you have put in the process. One thing about momentum is that you will start seeing the multiplied effect only towards the very end. This means that your jog out there today might seem to the be most useless thing that you did, but it counts in the end. So do not every fail to make each small input in the process to count. The compound effect works with the input of each negligible effort. So instead of counting on the impact you are having on the ground, count on the momentum you are building. Believe me, it is much better than nothing.

3. Focus on Self Competition

Growth is the side effect or the focus of pursuing a worthy cause. Therefore, get your eyes off the goal, get your eyes off the impact you desire and focus your eyes on your growth. Chances are that you are not the same person that you were when you started. In fact, if you think you want to stop, please consider the following that you will be missing:

• No Content
• No passion
• No blood, sweat and tears that produces growth
• No clout

In other words, you have so much going on internally that you would not want to trade off for anything by giving up.

4. Focus on consolidating your gains

In warfare, consolidation of conquered territory is as important as acquiring territory. In fact, in many cases, it is costlier than winning a territory. We have seen what the war on terror in Iraq did for George W. Bush. It took mere days to overthrow Saddan Hussein, but it took more than three years, billions of dollars spent and hundreds of deaths of American soldiers after Saddam had been toppled. In other words, you have come such a long way. Probably:

• You no longer wake up at 10:00 am
• You no longer waste time in gossip
• You are consistently feeding your mind and spirit a healthy diet
• You are each week doing some physical exercises
• You are exercising your mind amicably each day cracking your head over your project

Do you want to throw all that away because you are not seeing the results?

5. Focus on Taking a Small Break

Probably that is what you need. It can be such a daunting task to keep at your pursuit of purpose while discouraged. So take the break. Take some time out, but do not give up altogether. I am not negating the fact that results and impact matter. However, I am asking you to hang in there one more day, one more time, one more week. Let’s see what comes out of it. It is far much better than quitting. You never know. At times the break is just at the moment you are about to quit. So stay put for now.