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What To Do When You Quit
(11)Posted on January 31st, 2007Lyman ReedUncategorized
A few months ago, I started working on a series based on “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” by W. Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill. The plan was to examine the 17 success principles in the book, and write an article on each which outlined the major ideas behind each principle, as well as sharing my own thoughts on them.
I stopped after the second principle, and haven’t worked on it since.
The reasons that I stopped may or may not be important. It could have been my mental state, the fact that I was already doing more than I had the time or energy for, the sense of insecurity that I used to have around being a person who writes on personal development topics… it was probably a combination of these.
And so those few posts have just been sitting out there, collecting dust that is occasionally blown off by people searching for information on the book from Google.
There are a couple of things I could have done this morning. I could have just deleted the posts, pretending that it never happened, and started fresh. Up until now, that’s been my modus operandi: just get a fresh start, after never having finished what I’ve started. And then another fresh start… and another…
I didn’t want to do that this time. There is already some good information in those posts, so what purpose would just deleting them serve, except to protect my ego from bruising?
The series has been an open loop in my life for too long. Something needs to be done with it.
And here’s how I’m going about it:
1.) Decide if I still want to work on it.
That’s the first question. Is this something that I want to do, and that I think will bring value to the world? I could look at is as sour grapes, and just say “Ehhh, I never wanted to do this in the first place.” and walk away from it. But in this case, that would be dishonest. I love the book, and I would like to write about my own experiences in using the principles. But if we were talking about something that I honestly have no interest in anymore, then I can feel free to just drop it. Let it go.
2.) Get clear on what it is that I want.
Often, it’s best to look at what it is that you don’t want, in order to get clear on what you do want (Joe Vitale and Bob Doyle come to mind as proponents of this). One of the things that I don’t want to do is just rehash what people could read in the book anyway. And the way I’d set up the series in the first place, that’s what it was going to turn into. I’d much rather have it be a commentary on the 17 Principles outlined in the book, plus original ways that people can apply them in their own lives. Another open loop in my head has been a Web 2.0 project that I’d like to get started on, using the Ben Franklin method (also described in the book) of integrating desired virtues into one’s life.
So my clear image on this is: Have at least 17 original articles written, detailing my own ideas on the 17 principles, and a companion Web 2.0 application that others can use to integrate them into their own lives.
3.) Get a plan together
It doesn’t have to be an elaborate plan, but it has to be a plan. I’ll at least need to have a “next step” in place. Or, if I have no idea what that next step would be, I can always use the backwards planning method as described in Simpleology 101.
4.) Go!
Do that next step, even if the next step is figuring out what the next step will be. I’ve already got a pretty good idea of what it will be when it comes to this particular project, so that’s going to be the thing I do once this article is published.
There’s a proverb out there that says something like “Fall down nine times, get up ten.” This was only a failure because I quit. But now, since I’ve unquit, it’s back to being a success.
Have a fantastic day!
Similar Posts:
- Joe Vitale on “The Big Idea”
- Contempt Prior to Investigation (or… Open Mouth, Insert Foot)
- How to “Make It Great!”
- Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
- “So Why Aren’t We Rich Yet?”
11 Responses to “What To Do When You Quit”
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Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude - from Creating a Better Life January 31st, 2007 at 10:12 am
[...] What To Do When You Quit [...]
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February ‘07 Blogtipping - Spirituality Applied to Life - Balanced Life Center February 1st, 2007 at 11:26 am
[...] Next, my hat goes of to Lyman Reed of Creating a Better Life. 1 - Kudos for giving Creating a Better Life it’s own home. 2 - You bare your soul on your blog and that takes a lot of guts and courage. Take one of your recent posts, “What to Do When You Quit“.I really admire you for keeping it real. 3 - Starting the Personal Development Carnival (which incidentally, also has a new home), was a great idea. I still think it’s the best place to come if you want to mingle with all the personal development bloggers. Thanks for keeping it going. BTW, if anyone’s interested in hosting this carnival, you can contact Lyman at ldrjomaat [at] gmail [dot] com. Tip - You are doing great things. Keep up the frequent posting. I worry when I don’t see anything from you in a while. [...]
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Great article. Got one more subscriber
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[...] What To Do When You Quit (722) written by Lyman Reed outlines a step-by-step plan of how to face projects you’ve noticed yourself burying in the past - and bring them back into the daylight again with added usefulness. [...]
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[...] What To Do When You Quit [...]
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Thanks, Ivan! It’s good to have you.
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But there are successful aspects of the original series that you can’t know about. I knew about Napoleon Hill anf “Think and Grow Rich”, but I had never heard of “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude†and only learned about this course through your posts. Even though I was a bit disappointed when you stopped the series, I’m very grateful that you wrote as much as you did. I guess I should have left a comment of appreciation on the first post, but . . . . Anyway I’m very much looking forward to reading the rest of your posts.
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Thank you, Linda. It’s funny how we just assume things in our lives because of a lack of feedback. Or rather, because of a lack of the feedback we were looking for in the first place.
I appreciate you letting me know that you enjoyed the first few posts, and are looking forward to the upcoming ones.
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Good luck with your process, I am a fan of the number of times Edison tried before he got a working prototype of the light bulb. Keep up the good work.
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Thanks, Domino! That Edison story is one of my favorites, too.
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[...] read a post by Lyman Reed titled “What To Do When You Quit“. His post is in regards to a book that he had begun reading and a series of posts he planned [...]
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