I Gave Up On A Goal

I Gave Up On A Goal

And why sometimes you should, too.

I Gave Up On A Goal – And Why Sometimes You Should, Too

Winners never quit.

Always keep hustling.

Believe in your dreams.

All fine and dandy quotes in their time and space, yes, I said fine and dandy, but they are usually used out of context and not very helpful.

Winners who don’t stop running never quit – but they run the right race.

A winner should quit the race they aren’t supposed to be in; otherwise, they won’t win. And running the wrong race and never winning sure feels like a damn discouragement.

Always keep hustling – when you have clear focus and direction and the stamina to do so.

Otherwise, you will burn yourself out, not perform even remotely close to your likely already way too high expectations, and ultimately stop hustling, quit the race you are supposed to be in, feel discouraged, and give up on yourself.

Do you see a pattern here?

Because I got one more to go if you don’t.

Believe in your dreams – but don’t believe so steadfastly in one single, solitary solution to get you there. In fact, you might want to scrap the whole route together and pull the maps back out.

I don’t know if that last one fits the same format, but this is my blog, and I can write what I want.

The thing is, there are some areas of my life that I am guilty of falling into the bad habit of giving up and doubting myself, combined with the act of staying so stubbornly on course to a destination I know is there, but refuse to admit I might be taking the wrong way to get there.

This past summer/fall, when I took a step back, gave up on some things for a while, and gave myself permission to seek some new avenues, I gained a lot of clarity on what I was doing and why I was doing it.

And not just that, but it’s become easier to catch myself again, and again.

To have honest conversations with myself about my business, myself, my life, and to hold myself accountable for what needs to be done.

Now, do not confuse that with the idea of liking doing these things. It sucks more often than not, and I have to talk myself out of being mad at myself a lot. But.

It gets easier to do them.

And in doing them more, I can catch myself more, making more changes, tweaking how I do things, trying new things altogether, and being more honest about what was working, not working, and what I needed to do about it.

I am in the midst of making a big shift within my business, my content, and how I pay my bills.

One of the things I have taken on is working with entrepreneurs on their businesses and goals in two ways. The first is from a coaching and mentorship point of view, consulting them, and the second is via social media, whether that’s simply walking them through certain tasks or apps or actually managing their whole system. Creating content, engaging, and coming up with strategies.

At the same time that was happening, I finally got my shit together enough and made it around to publishing my ebook version of the story I wrote about Francesca and the tentacles. It had never made it into digital format, and I knew it was long overdue.

And all that leads me to where I started to blur the lines a bit and overlap some things that certainly didn’t need to be, and dived right in with a goal I didn’t actually want to make, although I didn’t know that at the time – launching my ebook as a full out social media strategic marketing campaign to show that I could put something like that together for my clients.

Girl. Whyyyyyy.

I have thousands of followers on my socials. I have taken countless courses on digital media, content marketing, SEO, content design, and marketing campaigns. I have self-published 11 books, some self-help journals, and created endless content across every platform for years. I have lived and learned every trick, all the upcoming trends, when apps roll out new updates and who gets it when.

I am bane here. Born from the darkness.

Who did I need to make this for? Who was I trying to prove to that I had skills?

Not once yet have I had a client ask to see a specific portfolio, and if they did, I ALREADY HAVE IT 100X OVER IN EVERY FORMAT.

But, to backtrack, I didn’t realize this when I made this goal. I didn’t realize when I decided to launch this ebook as a whole campaign and fill my days strategically posting and engaging and planning this marketing plan, that I was doing it FOR A BOOK I REALIZED IN THE SUMMER WHEN I HAD MY LITTLE BREAK DOWN, THAT I DON’T WANT TO PUSH MY WORK CONSTANTLY, MY OWN CREATIVITY, IN A WAY THAT DRAINS ME OUT JUST TO PAY THE BILLS.

And here I was….

The few days leading up to the campaign launch, I could feel my excitement and energy for it draining. And not in the same way that an entrepreneur will get feverish with joy for a few weeks and then have to re-motivate themselves. I could already feel it in my bones that something was wrong.

By day 2 of promoting the ebook, I was done. Could not force myself to work on that if you threatened me with bad things. Or, the good kind of bad things.

Simultaneously, I had been working with a few people on their content creation and new business ideas, and so much was resonating with me there, in 100 different directions, that I started to – what I assumed was – slip back into bad habits of losing focus and starting too many things, plus giving up on my ebook campaign and letting myself down.

But, with a little more grace and an open perspective to what I was really feeling, I was quick to realize it for what it was.

Me focusing on one single thing that doesn’t actually serve the big picture, and isn’t bringing me joy and isn’t worth it or working in comparison to all the things I was being called to, and how they aligned far greater to the bigger picture.

In realizing that… I had to..

Quit.

Stop hustling.

And acknowledge that the small thing was not the big dream, but the wrong route to get to the big dream.

And so… I gave up on a goal I loudly and publicly set for myself in December. And fuck did it ever feel good.

Not only did it start to open up the time and space for better and more beneficial things, but every single moment I spent working on that campaign can be repurposed to help future social media clients roll out strategic marketing plans for their content.

In the end, it all worked out.

And I am proud of myself for giving up.

So, if there is something out there you should give up for the bigger picture,

I encourage you to do so.

Much love my friends, thanks for reading.

Carissa McIntyre, Author, Freelance writer

Lady Mack Xo

#self-help #selfhelp #goals #goal #smartgoal #setagoal #realisticgoals #lifegoals