How To Handle Discouragement, Frustration, Or A Business Downturn

We all know that things can’t go up, up, up forever, right?

Is It Normal To Have A Business Cycle?

If we’re totally honest with ourselves, we all want everything to just continually increase and just go up, up, up all the time with our business.  We want to see continuous and never ending progress. With that being said, we all know that that is probably not a realistic expectation. You have to have cycles.

Take pro athletes for example.  Many times they will have the best year of their career, and then turnaround the next year and get seriously hurt and miss the entire season. Obviously, that is a very discouraging thing for them, but it comes with the territory.  Victor Cruz, the New York Giants wide receiver is going through the entire 2015 football season on the bench from nagging injuries.

The same thing happens in business. It could be from a variety of factors.  Karen and I have had a little bit of a downturn in some of our physical product sales over the past few months. That’s been a big challenge for us.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

It’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to get frustrated, and to start slipping back into some old mental thinking and limiting beliefs, and things like that.  But you must keep moving forward!

You know, the best way to handle that stuff, I think, is to just remember that what got you to where you are right now is not going to get you to the next level. You have to keep continually working on yourself, and continually improving in every aspect of your business and personal life.

When things are not going the way you want them to, and they’re just kind of turning down a little bit, it’s a really good time to take some self inventory, and to look at yourself and say,

“Look, the success or lack of success I’m having right now is a direct result of what I did over the past 3 to 6 months.”

What did I do over the past 3 to 6 months?  Was I as productive as I could be?  Did I lack in any skills?  Are there skills that were holding me back?”  Or did it have anything to do with you?  Was it the fact that something changed?  Like, for instance, with us, it wasn’t all us. There were some other outside factors. Amazon did some algorithm changes, there was a lot more competitors that came into our markets, etc..

There are sometimes outside factors, but I don’t like to focus on those too much because that doesn’t give you any productive information for you to actually make your situation better.  I do try to focus on what is it that we can do.

What is it that we can increase and improve on that will help us go to the next level?

I think it is a challenge to mentally not let it get you down.  But it is incredibly important for you to not let a downturn, slowdown, or a business cycle get you down, because if you do, you will not get to where you want to go.

I know that kind of sounds like tough advice.  You might be thinking, “Well, I have to pay my bills!”. I get that, trust me, Karen and I have been through our fair share of those type of feelings and feeling the pressure to pay your bills and make enough money each month to live comfortably.

Part of the reason why you’re probably looking at this video and blog post is because you want more for your life than the average person. When you want more for your life than average, you have to be willing to take on some things that an average person wouldn’t take on.

An average person doesn’t feel comfortable and is not willing to put him or herself in an uncomfortable position of maybe not having as much money this month as they did last month.

Entrepreneurship Requires Risk

That’s why most people will get a normal job. They make 60,000 dollars a year. They get their 5,000 dollar pay check every month. They can count on it. They don’t have to worry too much month to month. That’s not what being an entrepreneur is like.

If you really want to be an entrepreneur, you want to get involved with internet marketing, or selling products online or offline, you have to be willing to take a risk. There’s just no other way around that. You have to be able to take a risk.

There’s going to be some months that you feel on top of the world. There’s going to be some months where you feel like you want to get discouraged. You can’t let that happen. You just have to do whatever it takes to keep your momentum going and not let the failures soak in to your mental mindset.

Start Your Morning Off Right To Gain Momentum

One thing I do is a morning ritual. I get right out of bed, jump up and do my morning ritual.  Sometimes I don’t want to, but I do it anyway.

If you push through, and get yourself in the right mindset to take on the day and demand that you will have an amazing day, it will blow your mind how much you can get done and how good you can feel!

Demand that you’re going to have an amazing day and you’re going to have a positive attitude.

If you decide you’re going to take massive, incredible action. You’re going to do everything you can 150%, then chances are you’re not going to stay in those downturns very long.

The Comeback Is Oh So Sweet!

One more quick thought I wanted to tell you guys about.  I’ve had downturns and upturns in different areas in my life, but I will say that one of the best things about a downturn, or maybe falling off a little bit, is the come back.

The come back. You can’t underestimate how good it feels to come back. It feels incredible. The motivation you can get from coming back is just unbelievable, and It will take you to another level!

If you commit and you just buckle down right now and say, “Look, I’m coming back. I’m not where I want to be, but I’m coming back. I have the faith that this is going to not only work out, but get much better. I’m going to keep pushing forward. I’m going to push even harder.”

Then that motivation you gain out of that comeback is going to take you to a much higher level then you ever thought possible.  Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this video blog post!

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To success beyond your wildest imagination!

– Matt & Karen Hale