The Power Of Staying The Course
This week is both a testament and a challenge to staying the course when it comes to our dreams. For the vast majority of our dreams, we will see them come true as long as we never stop fighting for them. If it comes down to a battle of resilience, then I will win against the world when it comes to my dreams. That said, staying in the game when things get tough can be difficult.
This week is a testament to the power of staying in the game. Tonight, I am preparing for my fourth round of estate planning seminars. The first three had relative success, but we didn’t find the life-changing success we hoped for. My partner, for the first three, decided to step back and pursue other goals. That was all well and good, but I decided to stick it out because I felt like this business could still do amazing things for my family, and I had more buffer time in me to wait for the greatness to come.
This fourth round has had earth-shattering results, though. My sign-up rate has nearly doubled compared to the last three seminars combined. Now, it is still very early, and nothing has actually happened yet, but it is all very promising. If I needed a sign that staying in this business was the right decision, then I absolutely got it. Magic happens when we stay the course.
That being said, it is after 10 pm, which is well past my bedtime, and I have spent the entire day (and days leading up to today) in full-blown seminar prep. Name tags still need to be written out. I have a list of errands to run first thing in the morning and a seminar space to set up. I still need to practice my hour-long presentation at least once before officially calling it a night.
And I still hadn’t done my blog post for the day. Staying the course is hard when everything in me wants to go to bed. It is hard to get myself to do the work I committed to because I can easily justify taking time off after a long day of other work. But that is not the commitment I made to my blog. I didn’t say three days a week unless I have a hectic day with estate planning. That’s what I did last year, and it ended with me taking three months off of writing.
When I started writing again, I committed to following through no matter how busy my other work made me. I can hold both dreams close and work toward them, especially because they have different time demands on me. I went into this year knowing how busy estate planning could be, and I made the decision that I would write no matter what. I can’t back down from that the second the busy season hits, especially since I was fully aware it was coming.
Staying the course can be difficult. But I am seeing the rewards in one season of life, and I am confident that I will see them in another one day as long as I keep doing the work I planned for myself. Our dreams are worth the long days. They are worth the lulls in activity and inspiration. I’ve seen the power of staying the course this week, and it has eliminated all the excuses I could think of.