You Make it Past These Critical Benchmarks

99.99% of people quit a new hobby, goals, side project, venture, etc before six months is up. Probably 90% of people quit before 90 days.

I see this in writing all the time.

Sometimes I go to check on the blogs of writers Ive met over the years most often the blogs lead to broken links. They vanish, burn out, give up.

If you can work at something for 90 days straight without quitting, youre in good shape.

If you can work at something for six months without quitting, youre in great shape.

Make it a year or two in,getting small successes along the way, and youd be dumb to quit.

Make it five years, and youll never quit.

People permanently quit their dreams because of all of thestarts and stops causeso much fatigue. Hesitation causes more fatigue than actually doing the thing and it causes anxiety. You beat yourself up each time you procrastinate or stop your routine.

You do this because youre worried about the effort it will take to succeed, but youre actually exerting more effort and making yourself more miserable by staying stagnant.

My YouTube channel is now starting to generate some views passively. Guess how long Ive had it? 6 months. I shot roughly 90 videos.

It seems like a lot, but it feels as if Ive been doing it forever. The first video seems like a distant memory, even though back then doing a bunch of videos seemed like a long road.

Six months is the magic number. Make it.

You dont want money. You want the freedom to do what you want when you want.

Sure, you want the status that comes with your creative passion, but ultimately, you want to create.

You understand that many of the worldly metrics we live by money, status, audience, physical attractiveness, are bi-products ofdoing the work.

If you took perfect care of your health, found a profitable skill you genuinely enjoyed doing, and shared your gifts with the world, it would be odd if youdidnt get rich and sexy in the process.

On the one hand, you dont want to live solely for your desires.

But on the other hand, you dont want toact like the scoreboard doesnt exist.

The people who often say things like I just want to be content, are some of the most unhappy people youll ever meet. A content person wouldnt say they just want to be content. Theyd justbecontent.

I can see through people, easily. They live in castles built by rationalizations. They tell themselves they dont want what they really want because they dont think they get it.

People like me and you, we understand that the entire game isnt the endpoint, its thetrying itself that matters.

The fun of accomplishing a dream isnt what you get, itsseeing if you can pull it off.

The process of trying to do what most people cant and trying to exert your will over reality is fulfilling.

You want to feel like you have some damn power over your own situation, thats all. You dont need mansions, but you want to build successful businesses. You dont need insane fame, but you want a tribe of people who love a message you work hard to craft. You dont need to be uber-successful, per se, but like the late great Kobe Bryant, you want to leave it all on the court.

Most importantly, you dont want regrets.

Id rather you overshoot on your goals only to realize your dreams werent all they were cracked up to be than the opposite fate of always having to wonder what if.

Am I guaranteeing youll be successful just because you have ambition? Hell no.

But then again, if youre really ambitious, you dont need guarantees because you haveyou.

And thats more than enough.

Ayodeji is the author of Real Help: An Honest Guide to Self-Improvement.

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5 signs you have what it takes to accomplish your dreams - Ladders