Sometimes you're doing everything right and still not getting the results you expect.

You're doing the work, you're sticking to the plan, you're improving, preparing, being brutally honest about expected outcomes, but all your hard work doesn't seem to be working.

You're not building up momentum. You're not making enough money.

You don't even seem to be able to notice small improvements—something to give you the hope that your long-term plan is going to pay off.

You're tempted to give up

The facts seem to indicate that your plan is failing. And logic tells you that you need to change direction.

Do something else. Pivot. Jump ship. Find another path forward.

The reality about achieving success is that most of what you have to do in order to achieve success doesn't feel successful along the way. Your life has to get a whole lot harder before it starts to get any easier.

So, how do you manage your emotions and strengthen your will in those long stretches where you're working to get to where you want to be?

How do you stay focused and inspired when you don't have the results you want to make you feel inspired to do more?

1. Take care of your body, mind, your friends, and your finances.
2. Spend time each day thinking about why you want to achieve success in the first place.
3. Be brutally honest about your effort and the results you've earned so far.
4. Ask for help from people who will give you wildly uncomfortable advice.
5. Avoid negative people, mindless entertainment, and anything distracting.
6. Focus on doing at least one thing each day that matters.
7. Go out of your way to help someone else solve their problem with your money or time.
8. Start journaling, meditating, or spending quiet time to clear your mind.
9. Reframe your situation as a battlefield and your mission as life-or-death.

It takes radical behavior to achieve different results; little changes won't work, and small strokes won't move you closer to your goals. If you're stuck—and you want things to change—you have to do what you would otherwise consider to be outrageous. Don't bother changing if things are working for you already.

But if you're tired of losing get serious about doing the hard things.

Be willing to change.

Special Reports /

9 things to do when what you're doing isn't working

Related Stories

Recommended For You