Day 551 - Giving up - https://golifelog.com/posts/giving-up-1656978121067
All these lack of results from my products is making me want to give up. But not the giving up you think.
It's making me give up on things I used to do that I thought helped but not really.
It's making me give up on ideals and narratives I had how about things *should be* done.
It's pushing me to re-examine what I thought success looks like, to reimagine what it really is.
'Shoulds' like:
- Being impatient and expecting 'immediate' results (within months, or 1-2 years). Recently I said to myself that I'll commit a decade. It was a huge relief and provided perspective.
- I saw having monthly recurring revenue as the only way to success, but I'm giving that up and now I'm open to one-time revenue.
- I only wanted to earn money from my products and drop my consulting, but now I see that anything that allows me to keep going as a solopreneur is fair game. Survive first, not thrive before surviving.
- I wanted to succeed by building SaaS products, but even that I'm giving up now. It's okay to earn from info products, digital downloads, freelance. My Plugins For Carrd had been the huge opportunity right under my nose for the longest time, yet I continually neglect it for my SaaS. No more. I’ll follow where the money and opportunity is.
- I disliked the whole trend of maker making products for other makers, so I avoided it on moral high grounds. But that's just an egoistic position. A product that's useful is useful is useful. Why so pretentious? I don't get extra credit for being so idealistic and elitist...
- Building a product for Twitter audience. Similar to the makers makings for makers trend. Since I'm on Twitter, I know the needs of the people using Twitter fairly well. So why not make something for it?
- Giving up on the nice-to-have habits like daily affirmations, $2 jar. It's simply not moving the needle for me even though it feels like it would. Now I just wake up, and get to work.
- (Over-)crafting tweets that I'm proud of. The past few months I've spent maximum effort on writing tweets I can take pride in, frequently spending hours crafting and tweaking the tweet over multiple rounds. But I learned that the effort:reward ratio didn't make way I play worthwhile. For ephemeral content that disappears after 1-2 days, I should be just spending minutes on it, not hours. Spending hours follows the curve of diminishing returns. Also leaning on the point about committing a decade, I'm in this Twitter game for the long run, so no need to over-compensate all that effort upfront. Sure, I should still ensure some level of quality. But adjust accordingly. Same reasons why I started batching my tweets 1 week ahead instead of scheduling it on a per day basis - it's just not worth the effort.
- Avoiding LinkedIn as a marketing channel because it's "cringe". It's not, and just like Twitter, it's mostly about following the right people, curating your feed, and engaging the way you want.
Question to myself: What other 'shoulds' should I give up?
It's making me give up on things I used to do that I thought helped but not really.
It's making me give up on ideals and narratives I had how about things *should be* done.
It's pushing me to re-examine what I thought success looks like, to reimagine what it really is.
'Shoulds' like:
- Being impatient and expecting 'immediate' results (within months, or 1-2 years). Recently I said to myself that I'll commit a decade. It was a huge relief and provided perspective.
- I saw having monthly recurring revenue as the only way to success, but I'm giving that up and now I'm open to one-time revenue.
- I only wanted to earn money from my products and drop my consulting, but now I see that anything that allows me to keep going as a solopreneur is fair game. Survive first, not thrive before surviving.
- I wanted to succeed by building SaaS products, but even that I'm giving up now. It's okay to earn from info products, digital downloads, freelance. My Plugins For Carrd had been the huge opportunity right under my nose for the longest time, yet I continually neglect it for my SaaS. No more. I’ll follow where the money and opportunity is.
- I disliked the whole trend of maker making products for other makers, so I avoided it on moral high grounds. But that's just an egoistic position. A product that's useful is useful is useful. Why so pretentious? I don't get extra credit for being so idealistic and elitist...
- Building a product for Twitter audience. Similar to the makers makings for makers trend. Since I'm on Twitter, I know the needs of the people using Twitter fairly well. So why not make something for it?
- Giving up on the nice-to-have habits like daily affirmations, $2 jar. It's simply not moving the needle for me even though it feels like it would. Now I just wake up, and get to work.
- (Over-)crafting tweets that I'm proud of. The past few months I've spent maximum effort on writing tweets I can take pride in, frequently spending hours crafting and tweaking the tweet over multiple rounds. But I learned that the effort:reward ratio didn't make way I play worthwhile. For ephemeral content that disappears after 1-2 days, I should be just spending minutes on it, not hours. Spending hours follows the curve of diminishing returns. Also leaning on the point about committing a decade, I'm in this Twitter game for the long run, so no need to over-compensate all that effort upfront. Sure, I should still ensure some level of quality. But adjust accordingly. Same reasons why I started batching my tweets 1 week ahead instead of scheduling it on a per day basis - it's just not worth the effort.
- Avoiding LinkedIn as a marketing channel because it's "cringe". It's not, and just like Twitter, it's mostly about following the right people, curating your feed, and engaging the way you want.
Question to myself: What other 'shoulds' should I give up?