I want to get started by asking you a simple question. Have you ever felt like giving up?
Have you ever felt like it’s just not worth it anymore?
I want to see that in the comments because I think it’s really important for other people to see that they’re not alone in those thoughts. So, yes or no, have you ever felt like giving in?
I’m going to tell you a little story about one time that I felt like giving up and then I’m gonna tell you about three things that you need to ask yourself before you give in to that feeling.
Let’s talk about something that happened to me light years ago. We were at a conference and it was out of state so I was far from home and I had just landed. I was already late for the conference so I was rushing in and I honestly didn’t want to be there. I didn’t have any of my closest comrades, and there was a lot of stuff going on that I didn’t really want to be there in the first place. I landed in Denver and my husband is home with five kids and I have a one year old and a two year old at the time.
So I go into this meeting and then I start getting phone calls from my husband and I text him and said I can’t talk right now. I’m in the back of this important meeting…and he says, “No. You need to pick up the phone.” So I walk outside and I pick up the phone to the horror of my two-year-old screaming like I’ve never heard one of my children scream.
My husband tells me there’s blood everywhere and Craig Steven has knocked out his front tooth. Ran full speed into the corner of a wooden kitchen chair. I can hear the panic in his voice because he can’t stop the bleeding. He can’t stop the bleeding long enough to even get him into the car seat. And he doesn’t know what to do with the other kids. It was just a hot mess.
So tears streaming down my face and I go get my stuff and I am ready to go back to the airport and go home. Long story short, Craig was okay, everything worked out. He dropped the other kids at the babysitter and took him to the hospital. Dad took care of it but my heart was just broken that I wasn’t there to begin with.
Later that day, I got an email from someone that screen shotted a conversation of 4 women making fun of me. “oh poor Melissa had to leave crying cause we were making fun of her”.
Now, I didn’t even know that was happening, so I was even more furious. I was humiliated and hurt. I was feeling more alone than I ever had in my business and life. And I simply wanted to quit. I don’t remember a single thing about that conference. Except for that awful situation and the mean girls that made it worse. I was at the top of my company, so I walked stage for awards and ribbons and who knows what else. But I don’t remember a single thing but that horrible event.
When I got home, I went into the deepest, darkest place I’d ever been in my business. I wanted to quit and I was on a mission to find out how I could. I actually self demoted and dropped down a title to get away from the toxic environment I was in by holding that title. For three months I didn’t do a thing in my business but stay active, the bare minimums.
Then I woke up one day and realized I couldn’t quit.
Because I wanted to stay home with my family.
And need the income to do it.
So I had to figure out a new way.
See, you need to ask yourself these 3 questions:
- What do you want?
- Why do you want it?
- How are you going to get it?
If you don’t know what you want, you might find yourself struggling with a business that doesn’t give you joy anymore. If you don’t know why you want it, maybe your goals have changed. And that’s okay too. But if you know both those things with a conviction stronger than your circumstances, quitting is not option. So you need to figure out a new way, a new path, a new mindset to get you where you need to go.
I listened to a radio show where they talked about how the distance between grief and joy is the same. You get to choose everyday, where your energy is going to go. It’s your choice. Choose your own path.
