Motivation Monday: Get Through the Dip
Ever read 'The Dip' by Seth Godin?
If there’s one book that every creative or entrepreneur should keep close by, it’s The Dip by Seth Godin. Ironically, I’ve had a copy kept inside my glovebox for about a year now. I always have it handy for when I’m waiting around or need to kill some time, and the lessons contained within it are invaluable to us all.
In the book, Godin talks about an all-too-familiar phenomenon which he calls the dip. Dips invariably occur at one point or another as we climb the career ladder to success. What happens is this:
We embark on a new venture, filled with ambition and passion.
In the beginning, we see tremendous success. Our results soar. Sales boom. We’re packing on pound-after-pound of muscle. Everything is going swimmingly.
That is, until, we reach a dip. A bump in the road. After getting used to the idea of floating on our cloud of boundless achievement, we falter, and our progress is halted.
That’s what usually happens, in some way or another. For Nike, after almost half-a-decade of success, millions of dollars in revenue and groundbreaking results across the board, they received a crippling lawsuit from Onitsuka that had the potential to wipe the shoe-sculpting giant out of the market entirely.
Nike reached a dip. We all reach a dip at some point or another. And what do many of us do when we reach that dip? We quit.
We quit because times are tough. We quit because we want more money. We quit because we’re afraid of failure, and so we jump ship rather than going down with it.
In his book, Godin tells us that we have two choices. That is, to quit, or to become exceptional. Those who make it through the dip become exceptional. Most don’t.
What happens, as a result, is that survivors of the dip become invaluable. They’re scarce, since most people quit, and we all know that scarcity creates value.
I’m in a dip at the moment. My publication, Mind Cafe, has been exceeding all expectations. Our stats have been reaching record heights on a day-to-day basis. That was, until we reached a dip.
It’s at this point that most people would quit. The sight of diminishing results is enough to make many turn and run away in fear, but not me. And not you, either.
See, if you wish to craft your passion into a career, into a lifestyle, you’ve got to get used to pushing past the dip. As Godin himself wrote,
“Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can't deal with the stress of the moment.”
Keep going. Prove how much you want it. Persist, and you’ll achieve.
It’s been a while, I know. Life gets in the way of these things sometimes, but I’m back. At least, I’ll be writing more often. Perhaps not every day - but most days.
Now that I’m editing and running my business full-time, it’s tricky to keep tabs on everything. But hey, no excuses - right?
Motivation Monday: At the best of times, Mondays leave us feeling tired, miserable and wanting little more than to stay inside our cosy beds. Motivation Monday is all about resisting the temptation to slack and keep up with our day-to-day efforts at becoming our best selves.