Week #2 of Earn1k…FAIL
Mar 21st, 2011 by Carlos
Almost two weeks ago I re-committed myself to Ramit’s Earn1k program and vowed to attack it with ferocity and intensity. I got off to a great start and then the tail end of the week was a disaster.
I was almost done with week 1 and I had a blog post ready to discuss a bunch of stuff I’d “learned.” But here we are, a week later, and I haven’t had any progress.
What happened?
Excuses are a Dime a Dozen
I got sick.
The baby got sick.
M got sick.
Work was busy.
You’ve heard all these before. Where I failed was in handling these setbacks. Instead of attacking the problems and finding a way around them, I just sat back in a daze and let them happen. Hence: no progress.
So here I am, at the start of week #3 and instead of starting with the material for week #3 I’m still on week #2. And yet I still think there are a couple of things to learn from here:
Shit Happens
Deal with it or fail.
Don’t Delay Defeat
I was going to try to just “make up” the week I lost by doubling up and faking my way through it. Instead, I’m writing a post that basically says I failed. The sooner I accept that I failed, the better off I’ll be moving forward.
Never Stop
It’s really easy to hit a roadblock like this and say “this course really wasn’t working for me anyway.” Then that one week turns into two and three and the next thing you know you’re grabbing a bag of chips to watch opening day instead of grabbing the laptop to get some work done.
That’s just the way it is.
But if you’re truly committed you have to own up to the failures and just keep plugging along.
Momentum Matters
This is HUGE and it’s something Ramit actually goes into in the course. He calls it “quick wins” but the idea is the same: you need to build and maintain momentum to make it through large projects where you’re basically pushing yourself to get things done.
In short, the idea to set up smaller, easier goals to get you on your way. This week I lost totally broke up all the momentum I had when I wrote that post two weeks ago. The excitement, the focus, that youthful zeal—I lost it.
Now I have to start over again.
Off I go.
Image by styro
It seems like starting a profitable side hustle is kind of like quitting smoking. It’s ok if it doesn’t work the first time, or the 2nd, or 3rd. But you are more likely to succeed with each real attempt.