There are so many things in my life that I have started but then I couldn’t continue for even 7 days. I would have achieved so much more if I managed to practice consistency in my action, yet no matter how much we try, and no matter how much we understand the importance of consistency, it is always hard when you start something new.
I always notice other people who seek advice from me asking questions about how they are able to achieve the goal they picture and it is the consistency that is required for them to allow manifestation to happen because their action plan is in good shape, but they won’t be able to keep up with the action they committed.
So today, I’d like to talk about the reasons why people stop doing things they promised to continue and share some points to help you keep committed.
The biggest reason is that the goal is not clearly defined.
I’ve seen many people who start something but then quit because they’re not sure why they started in the first place. For example, with blogging, as I do here if the goal is just to write without a clear purpose, you will face the typical roadblock such as not knowing what to write about, feeling tired, doubting the purpose of writing, slowing down the pace, and eventually stopping altogether.
To prevent this to happen, it’s important to set a clear goal. For example, if the goal is to improve writing skills, then writing in an environment where you can receive feedback every time can be helpful. You can also decide what kind of feedback you want to receive to determine what you’re writing for. If you see that your SNS followers or customers are increasing as a result of your writing, you’ll feel a sense of growth and purpose, and that can help you continue.
It’s also important to measure your progress. For example, if you’re trying to attract more customers through your blog, it’s important to track how many reservations are made through the blog. Without measuring, you may not feel the purpose of writing every day and eventually quit.
When starting something, it’s important not to expect miracles. Instead, it’s better to focus on creating something that can be reproduced and repurposed.
It’s important to make a habit of starting with a hypothesis and then working to prove it. Incorporating things like improving the accuracy of your hypothesis, reducing the risks to prove it, and shortening the time to realization into your goal setting can help.
In my case, I always write with a purpose for my blog. Instead of doing something without a clear reason, I set it up into what I need to do. This gives me a reason to continue and a reason to achieve my goals.
Overall, it’s important to make sure that the means (writing) don’t become the purpose.
It’s also important particularly for me to force myself into an environment where I have to do it because I tend to lean on making a choice that is not aligned to achieve my success.
One reason why I shifted from affiliate marketing to running a beauty massage salon was that my lifestyle became completely disorganized. I stopped doing things that I used to be able to do when I worked for a company, such as going out, meeting people, and eating meals.
I didn’t realise how important it is for me to have the constraints of working within an organization, such as having to go to work and taking lunch breaks.
When I became entreprenuer, I was feeling disconnected and disengaged from society.
So, as a way to create a reason to continue my engagement and my connection with society and people, I decided to open a beauty massage so that it creates responsibility for me to engage with my employees and customers and force me to throw myself into these commitments and rules.
I can’t selfishly cancel a reservation once it’s made, so I used the fear of losing trust and missing opportunities as a motivation for me to take action. I think there are also leaders like me who can move because there are employees.
Now I know this drive derives from fear of losing, fear of abandonment is imbued with two sides of the coin so I need to work on that. I need to acknowledge my feeling of fear and accept and digest it so that I can feel safe alone.
Anyway, that episode opens another open loop so not here to talk about so going back to our main topic:
I can’t do everything alone. The same goes for the operation of Kesae Total Balance.
We have only 2 members, including me, but it’s all thanks to our main therapist. I try not to do things alone and only do things that only I can do. But as I wrote before, coexistence is good, but dependence is not. The organization becomes fragile immediately.
Overvaluing Perfection creates trouble. Overvaluing perfection is not good because you never be able to get started.
In my opinion, people who are likely to accomplish something tend to be either stupidly honest with a lot of action (like me) or learn one thing and get to 10 things on their own.
People who aim for perfection try to reach a high level of achievement with the minimum amount of action without finding what moves the needle for the business.
Once you’ve done the research and drafted your plan within the limits of what you can do, decide on the action that is required to achieve the result you want and go for it.
Truth be told, it’s a gamble until you actually confirm it, no matter how much research you do. The first attempt is always a gamble.
Data comes out by attempting the challenge and you can make a formula from the second attempt.
And you can improve the accuracy of that formula later on. If you feel like you can’t achieve the result you expected halfway through, you can always withdraw too. What we don’t want to see is to see people saying like “I tried it for five or ten years, but it didn’t work.” “I invested 10 million yen, but it didn’t work…”
- I’m doing too many things.
- I’m pushing too hard.
- What is the thing that moves the needle for the business?
It’s about making an impact on things that influence the core foundation of the business.
Let me share my example. One of my challenges would be to “get people to come to my recruitment event.”
Through nationwide events, I experienced how difficult it is to attract people to come to a recruitment event.
By the way, I would like to share the backstory of why I make “getting people to come to my events” a goal to pursue.
It’s because I had laid out my first drafted plan and proven that people who came to our recruitment event would help me secure the new massage therapist for the remaining area.
That’s why the number of events this year is unusually high.
And that event becomes the starting point for:
- we can verbalize it, and compartmentalize it by creating materials.
- Verbalization leads to improved business accuracy.
- Creating event materials allows us to release new content.
- By doing events, we can create audio and video materials.
- We can also connect with new people.
- We can receive more event requests.
This has a very high cost-performance ratio.
Actually, if the event doesn’t fail (meaning doesn’t operate at a loss), then I found out that our business will continue to grow along with the number of events we run.
I’m fully committed to those who participate and the reputation of each event so far has been good.
Investing in automating a system that generates profits even if little profit is made, it is not a good action to raise the standard of living for the sake of enjoying life alone when you have a long-term goal you want to achieve.
We will recycle the profits generated to generate more profits and automate them. As part of that, employee returns make a lot of sense.
It reduces turnover and, above all, improves employee accuracy. Rather than creating an environment that relies on managers, we are intentional in establishing a system in which we coexist with the company, and we have set high employee returns to achieve this.
It is very important to invest in a foundation that enables us to picture the next step rather than immediately enriching ourselves.
Start with things that produce results and don’t stop taking action. Determination, fighting spirit, there are times when it’s tough, but I won’t give up. I won’t surrender.
I’ve also thought about quitting many times, but I always overcome it because I know the reasons why I shouldn’t stop.
I’ve been able to keep going because I’ve also immersed myself in an environment that makes it easier to do things. If this experience and challenge of my facing reality can become a push for everyone to move forward, that would make me happy.
