Success. It’s a subjective concept.

What does success mean to you?

For me, it’s a lot of things but the epitome of success is:

(a) doing the things I love; and

(b) making a decent amount of money from those things.

Then I can say that I’m truly successful.

To date, I feel like I’m just treading water and getting nowhere. It sucks. It’s discouraging. I’m on the verge of succumbing to the rat race forever and forgetting about my dreams and aspirations.

I want to quit.

Quit my goals. Quit my dreams. Quit trying.

What’s the point when each day feels like I’m moving uphill with no end in sight?

But quitting would be the easy thing to do.

It’s what the majority would do. Then they’d go around demoralizing other people’s dreams by telling them ‘this doesn’t work’ or ‘that’s impossible‘ or ‘there’s no way you stand a chance’ because they gave up before they had a chance to get a taste of success or they never bothered trying.

Yes, these people exist. The naysayers, the negative bunnies who just want to rain on your parade to make themselves feel better. Most will do it unintentionally, some will be sinister. Each one will leave their mark but it’s up to you how you react to the negativity.

You can listen. Or you can tread your own path.

What I like about hills is that at some point, sooner or later (hopefully sooner!) you’re going to reach its peak and the view is going to be spectacular. You’re going to reach the pinnacle and feel success running through your blood. Then, you’ll set another goal and climb another hill, another pinnacle and so forth.

Which is why quitting isn’t an option. At least not for me. Even though there are days like most of this week where I’m asking myself, “what the fuck is the point?”

The point is, it’s important to me.

What’s important to you?

What keeps you awake at night? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? What lights up the fire inside of you? What do you want your life to look like? What are you willing to sacrifice to make it happen?

When you feel like quitting it’s time to take a step back. Reassess. Break down the big goals into small action steps.

Hit restart. Keep moving forward even if you first had to take two steps back.

You’ve hit a wall with that novel you’re writing? It sucks. It happens. Acknowledge it. Have a whine or (a wine!). Then,

• Read over what you’ve written. Is there anything you can add, expand, edit out? Are there any story lines that you haven’t developed? Questions you haven’t answered for the reader?
• Jump to another scene or chapter. No one said you had to write your novel in a coherent order.
• Do you know how you want your story to end? Write the last chapter. It doesn’t have to be permanent. You’ll be changing, modifying and fixing the story during the editing stage.
• Brainstorm some scene ideas that will show the themes you are trying to share with your readers. Don’t censor yourself. Have fun with it, write down whatever comes to mind regardless of how crazy or lame it sounds.

Doubts don’t just affect writers.

Most people will have thoughts of giving up – whether it’s whilst training for a marathon, studying for a degree, working towards a promotion, paying off debt, starting a business or saving for a house deposit.

The steps we need to take to achieve our ambitions aren’t always going to be easy.

Sometimes they are fucking hard.

But our perception of these hurdles is what can help us jump over them.

Often they are just testing our commitment, sometimes they are forcing us to reexamine what we are striving for, at other times pushing us to step outside our comfort zones and find alternative solutions.

Whatever it is you want to do, when the going gets tough, don’t quit. Push through. Today, the task at hand may seem daunting, but tomorrow that feeling will pass and you’ll be a step closer to achieving your goals, whatever they may be.