I was listening to a motivational pump-up youtube video this morning during my workout. It was one of those mashups of motivational speeches from a variety of cool dudes with “inspiring” music in the background.
And there was one line that really hit me.
You know something has some meaning when you’re listening to a 10+ minute track and it just sticks out like a sore thumb.
It also helped that the person who said it was Tony Robbins – he may not be the one who initially came up with it, but there was no mistaking his voice (love him or hate him, the guy knows how to make a speech!).
“Progress=happiness”
So simple, yet so true – and so fitting for me right now.
It’s easy, especially as a solopreneur, to get mentally “stuck”. To be in the grind for so long you don’t see the big picture, to lose faith in what you’re doing, to get lonely spending long hours alone.
You start focusing on external factors or things that you are or aren’t accomplishing and rely on that for your happiness, or lack thereof. And it’s easy to forget things like the simple equation above.
One way to happiness is progression – in its simplest form, just doing stuff. Accomplishing things, meeting targets, or deadlines, or goals.
And you can only do the above by taking action.
If you aren’t or feel like you can’t, it may be because you don’t know what you should progress toward – and that’s okay.
Go find it.
Go find your new business idea.
Go get a new job.
Go start that side gig.
Go, go, go.
Progress, progress, progress.
I’m not normally this passionate on a Friday, but hey – when it hits, it hits. Here I am expanding on these thoughts in my vlog:
In some cases, it can be easy to make progress – especially if:
– you’re working a 9-5 and have a boss telling you what to do
– you’re working on a startup with co-founders
– you have a business you already own and need to grow
But what if you’re not happy with your 9-5 and want something more, or you’re a lonely solopreneur not feeling as happy as you’d like? How do you…or how should you… try to make progress?
It’s a tough question.
But I think one of the easiest ways to figure out how and where you need to progress is to find a mission and then ruthlessly pursue it.
What do I mean by that?
Well, I find the days/weeks/times I’m most bored or not as “happy” are the times when nothing very exciting is going on… when there’s nothing new or challenging or motivating going on in business. This is also when I’ve hit some sort of mental or business plateau, or don’t know where I want to go next.
It’s at this point where you need to take some time and figure out your mission and how to progress towards that.
– are you trying to re-shape a certain industry?
– break into freelancing?
– help certain people get a certain type of result?
What’s the end goal here? What’s a perfect day look like for you?
Explore some of these thoughts and questions – I know I’m doing it at this point in time – to re-align myself with my mission, so I can continue to progress towards it.
Or if you’re stuck and/or the above made no sense, feel free to reach out. I love talking about this stuff (clearly!). You can connect on my email list here or shoot me a DM @solopreneurgrind.
All the best.
