Most People Give up Too Easily.
This is true for business,
for marriage,
for diets,
for friendships…
for everything.
I read a post this morning from @Christian Mickelson. It was a great post, revealing, authentic and raw. In it, he spoke about his wife kicking him out, his employee stealing from him, being sued by a client, betrayed by a “friend,” and more.
I don’t know Christian personally, but I LOVED how he is clearly a man who invests in his original vision. In business — and in marriage — he is ALL IN.
His commitment?
Is what I call a
No
Matter
What
commitment.
Period.
Will he — and has he —
experienced setbacks, discouragement, NOs and worse?
Yep.
As have I.
As has ANYONE successful in ANY endeavor worth pursuing.
In just over a week, Chris and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We have endured a horrific family situation that negatively impacted our finances, our holidays and — in fact — nearly our every day. We survived YEARS of his battle with depression. We somehow navigated a season where my career was experiencing HUGE growth at the exact time when he was feeling most stuck. We’ve survived the first (and subsequent) times in our marriage where we were growing and maturing at DRAMATICALLY different paces. We survived direct sabotage attempts from others close to us, and more.
And yet…
Here we are.
Older,
wiser,
and both so incredibly grateful to wake up to each other every morning
and go to bed with each other every night.
The going got REALLY tough.
There were moments when I thought we had no more left to give.
There were seasons when I felt I should leave FOR THE KIDS,
times I thought I was staying JUST for the kids.
A time when I knew I would have been vulnerable to the attentions or affections of other men — If I weren’t careful.
Times were tough,
But we were tougher.
Our circumstances and feelings and emotions were fleeting,
as ALL emotions are
but our commitment was iron clad.
In June of 1999, he and I both approached that wedding as a COVENANT, not a contract.
On the practical side,
I don’t believe EVERY marriage is healthy,
and I wouldn’t advocate staying in one that isn’t.
But I know that there are an awful lot of divorced people who regret not trying a bit harder, staying just a touch longer, or not seeing what may be on the other side of whatever they were going through at the time.
Back to Christian.
He’s a determined man.
He doesn’t give up easily.
He doesn’t view obstacles as a SIGN that he should give up, lol…
because that’s THE recipe for LOSING at life and love and business.
Instead, he views obstacles the same as me:
As an opportunity to double down on what’s important.
So, here’s to you if you feel like giving up.
On anything.
If the going feels too hard,
too long.
If the hard times come too often,
too fast,
and too predictably…
Stop resisting. Instead, lean INTO giving up.
Step One:
Consider, what does giving up LOOK LIKE? Practically speaking. Let’s lean into it. If you GAVE UP on your business, your body, your marriage, or that friendship… what would it FEEL like? If you GAVE UP, how would you think? feel? What would you become? What would you DO if you give up?
Do that, but DO NOT STOP THERE. Now, step two:
Lean into the opposite! What would it look like to do the OPPOSITE of giving up? What would DOUBLING DOWN look like? Feel like? What would you BELIEVE, BECOME and DO if you doubled down instead of giving up?
Finally, friend…
what do you decide?
Are you giving up?
Or going all in?
For the joyfully, stubbornly UNEMPLOYABLE woman entrepreneur, the one who knows she’s DOUBLING DOWN always, I want to talk with you. I have a tribe I want you to know about… I have a sisterhood, a business school, a coaching platform I want you to consider. Message me.
