How to Succeed Even When You Feel Like Giving Up

By Lorraine Reguly, B.A./B.Ed., Author, Writer, Editor, Blogger, Self-Publishing Assistant, Consultant/Mentor, and owner of Wording Well

“Difficult roads often lead

to beautiful destinations.”

~Zig Ziglar

OUR MANY RESPONSIBILITIES CAUSE OVERWHELM

As business owners, we have many responsibilities:

Marketing our products or services (finding customers)

Dealing with customers (and customer complaints)

Keeping accurate records (bookkeeping)

Managing our websites and social media accounts

Ordering supplies

Finding time to do “all the extras”

What else do we do?

All of these responsibilities can cause us to become overwhelmed.

Today, we are going to:

talk about how we can cope with such feelings

learn which tasks can we can outsource to others (and where to find such people to help us)

learn what to do to help us stay on track and continue to be motivated to not only run our business, but grow them

HOW TO COPE WITH OVERWHELM

There are many things we can do when we feel

overwhelmed:

1.Breathe

This is important! We need to avoid anxiety and heart

attacks!

You can simply stop what you’re doing, and take

some deep breaths.

You can also practice meditation, which involves

doing deep breathing exercises and centering

yourself.

2. Do some yoga or engage in other exercises

Exercise is a great way to clear your mind.

(Plus, it’s good for you!)

You can do some yoga, go for a walk or a run, dance,

or do anything else that gets your body moving!

3. Take a break

(This is probably the most obvious option!)

Find something that takes your mind off work.

Watch TV. Go out for coffee with a friend. Go

shopping. Take an art class. Knit or crochet.

The key is to find something you enjoy doing, which

will make you feel relaxed and refreshed!

4. Stop scheduling appointments

Keep a visual calendar in sight so you can see how

busy your week is going to be.

Do not schedule more than one thing a day!

5. Start saying NO to others

Say YES to only the important things!

Prioritize!

6. Be realistic about your time

We are all given 1440 minutes to spend each day.

What you do with them will determine how you feel.

To make the most of your time, you can use a timer

to help you stay focused on your task. Decide how

much time you want to spend on a specific task, then

track how long it actually takes you to complete it.

…

Once you have a clear understanding how long (or

how little) a task actually takes, you can be more

realistic with your time, and plan to use your time

wisely.

For example, how long does it take to check your

Facebook notifications and respond to everyone?

Do some days take you longer than others,

depending on what you’ve posted?

Once you know your “feedback schedule,” you can

allot specific times to reply to everyone.

7. Work during your daily productivity peak

What time of the day are you most productive?

Work during that time!

8. Stay organized

Keep “on top” of things, and don’t let things pile up

or get out of control.

Clean your desk daily.

Close tabs on your laptop.

Handle a piece of paper ONCE. (Best advice I

ever got from my mentor!)

9. Celebrate!

Focus on your achievements, celebrate your

victories, and take time to appreciate how far you

have come during your journey.

Often, we only think about all of the things on our

TO DO lists; we don’t stop and consider how many

things we have checked off!

Try keeping a DONE list to help you remember all of

the things you have done!

10. Get in the right mindset at the beginning of

each day

Do you wake up feeling groggy?

Do you have a hard time climbing out of bed, or

functioning until you have had 3 cups of coffee?

Do you struggle with motivating yourself because

you simply have so much to do that you don’t

know where to start?

(Raise your hands!)

What is our mindset?

Our mind-set is how we view things. It involves our attitudes,

and a particular way of thinking. Simply put, it is our state of

mind.

Our mind-set is made up of our thoughts and beliefs.

Each of us has a set of different thoughts that regularly

occupy our minds. These thoughts are determined by our

experiences, our education, where we live, and how we were

raised.

I use positive affirmations to

“set my mind right.”

You can use these too!

What are positive affirmations?

Affirmations are positive statements that are repeated on a

daily basis that alter your current (usually negative) beliefs by

sinking into your subconscious.

Even though these statements might not initially be true, the

constant repetition of them eventually makes them a reality!

This is a strange phenomenon, but it is also a theory that has

been proven to work. In a way, it is kind of magical!

Sample affirmations:

I deserve happiness and success.

I am motivated.

I am in control of my life and my destiny.

I am becoming the best version of myself

that I can be, and no one can stop me.

I am unstoppable!

I love myself and my life.

I am blessed and grateful for all I have.

Doors of opportunity are constantly opened

for me.

I expect great things from myself, and I will

achieve my goals.

I feel strong, excited, passionate, and

powerful!

Today I am concentrating on meeting my

goals.

Today I am concentrating on moving my life

forward.

I am competent, confident, and calm.

There are NO LIMITS to what I can achieve!

I am a strong, capable, independent woman

who can achieve ANYTHING I set my mind

to!

I am a beautiful person, inside and out.

I am helpful.

I am smart.

I am successful.

An intelligent woman lives inside me, and

today that woman is running my business.

11. Find help!

Outsource tasks!

What tasks can others do to help you?

- Social media posting

- Cleaning

- Bookkeeping

- Etc.

Who can help you?

- People hired from Fiverr

- Virtual Assistants (VA)

- Friends

- Family

- Other qualified professionals

Maybe you need someone to create images for

you.

You don’t necessarily need to hire a graphics

designer for this; many people possess such skills.

I learned how to create images for my blog posts

using tools such as Canva and Paint. Other people

use Photoshop.

There are a ton of tools you can use, and a ton of

people who you can hire for this.

For offline work, consider hiring students. You will save money by being able to pay them a lower wage, and you will give them some extra spending money. Win-win!

For online work, you can hire a Virtual Assistant (VA). You can find qualified people for a cheap rate on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. You can also find them elsewhere, if you look hard enough.

For example, maybe you need someone to manage your social media accounts. Hire a VA.

Maybe you need someone to write blog posts for you. Hire a freelance writer (such as myself!).

Consider the task/profit benefit of your time.

For example, I can earn $65 per hour editing.

It takes me 1 hour to schedule my social media posts for

the week.

I can hire someone to schedule my posts for me at a rate

of $20 per hour.

How should I spend my time?

Hire someone to do the tasks you hate!

“Never give up on something

you really want. It's difficult

to wait, but it's more difficult

to regret.”

~Unknown

HOW TO STAY ON TRACK (STAY MOTIVATED)

The obvious one is to use TO DO lists to stay on track. Ones that are handwritten have the biggest effect on your productivity, because studies have shown that if you write something out, you are 42% more likely to achieve it (as opposed to pressing letters on a phone, tablet, or keyboard).

You can also set deadlines for yourself, and use reward systems. For example, if I finish Task A by noon, I will treat myself to a donut (or whatever treat you want).

“Don't cry over the past; it's

gone. Don't stress about the

future; it hasn't arrived. Live

in the present and make it

beautiful.”

~Unknown

But how can you stay positive, happy,

and motivated?

Change your thoughts

Use positive affirmations

Practice gratitude (be grateful)

“Start telling the universe

what you want instead of

what you don't want.”

~Unknown

"No matter who you are, no

matter what you did, no

matter where you've come

from, you can always become

a better version of yourself."

~Madonna

Track your time

Hire a coach or find an accountability partner

You can hire a coach or consultant (such as

myself) who can help you develop a plan of action

and then help keep you accountable to that plan

by speaking to them on a regular basis.

Realize that success involves sacrifices and takes time to achieve!

Channel your passion and choose goals based on your values, not on what others expect from you.

Attribute your failures to the right causes (Ex. Social media growth goal of getting 10,000 Twitter followers each month – if you fail to do this, it is probably because you had a poor social media strategy and didn’t spend your 10 minutes on Twitter each day, not because you’re simply lazy or worthless Consider Thomas Edison and how many experiments were done before the light bulb was invented. He failed 1000 times before achieving success! Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded)

REMEMBER…

NOW…

THE END

This presentation has been

brought to you by Lorraine

Reguly from Wording Well

Read the blog post here!