101. Quitter's Day 2024 - Here's How to Fail at Quitting

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Hello, hello, hello, ladies. How is it going? I hope you're having a fabulous day. And I am trying to figure some things out here. I'm using a new way of recording today, and so I'm just kind of playing around to see what's happening. I hope that it's coming through because I recorded this episode once before and it didn't record any audio. So here we go. This is take two. It's gonna be so good this time, you guys. Oh, man. I hope. Anyway, how's your year starting off? I would love to hear, you know, you can always reach out to me on social and would love to converse with you over there. And I want to talk with you today about something I just recently heard about. It's called Quitters Day. Have you heard about Quitters Day? I did the research on it, and it is from the health and fitness world. There has been a trend which is not surprising to any of us because we all, you know, have been like, made New Year's resolutions and those things and quit and whatever, right? Well, it's usually either around day 12 or the second Friday of the month or 19 days or 17 days. There's a lots of different, varying opinions on this trend. But basically, you know, it's, I don't know, two weeks, three weeks in. The majority of people quit on their goals. And I think that is so sad. I think it, you know, the health and fitness world has seen this trend, but I think it's prevalent throughout any goals that we set, right, that we get a few, couple weeks in and we feel like, all right, we're done. This isn't going to work. I'm not seeing the progress that I wanted to see. You know, the money isn't flowing in or the I haven't lost the weight or I'm not seeing the muscles yet. Whatever we're working on. And then we give up. And so I wanted to talk about that today because as you know, or maybe not the first hundred days of the year, I feel like, are so, so super important for us in creating momentum in our business and creating those habits that are going to help us to go the distance. And so I wanted to, as a part of that, to talk about Quitters Day because I don't care if it's the second Friday or the 12th day, 17th day, 19th day of the month. I don't care. We all have quitters days, right? We all have days that we want to quit, and the majority of us will quit. But I want to give you the tools today so that you don't have to quit, that you realize and normalize the fact that quitting is just part of the journey. I want you to understand that. Because, you know, I was thinking about this for myself, like, yes, I'm. I'm not going to quit. I know that I'm not going to quit on my business. I've been at it now for almost 19 years, and I haven't quit yet. But let me tell you, the majority of me, the majority of the time wants to quit, right? That's just a part of the journey. So if you feel like you want to quit, if you feel like you want to quit right now, or if maybe you feel like you want to quit tomorrow or next Tuesday, it's okay. That's part of it. And it doesn't mean anything has gone wrong. It's not a sign that you should quit. And it is just a feeling that we often have. It's completely normal. And today I want to give you five tools that I want you to keep in your tool belt so that when you feel like you do want to quit on your business, that you come back to this podcast, you come back to these tools, and you make this a practice. Because let me tell you, my friends, ladies, listen, I go through these tools every morning, and sometimes I have to go through them during the day when I feel like quitting, right? So make this a part of your. It's almost like self care, right? Like caring for your mind, caring for your mission. Because the work that you're doing in the world is important. I want you to still stick with it. Don't give up. The world needs you. We need what you have to offer. And I want to help you to not be a quitter. I want to support you and surround you with all of the inspiration and support and instruction and give you the tools so that you don't quit. Because we need what you have to offer. And I want you to just think about you, your Future Self on December 31st of 2024, this year year, how you're going to feel if you don't quit, right? The sense of accomplishment and the pride you're going to have in yourself and just all of the skills and the grit and the strength that you will have developed because you didn't quit. So I want to give you these tools today to help you keep going. And of course, I'm always here to support you. Okay? So tool number one in how not to quit is to reconnect with your why. Reconnect with why you're doing what you're doing. And this can be like your big why. I want you to always know what that is and then your smaller whys. Like your why for this year, your why for the big goal that you have. Right, right. I want you to connect back to those things and remember why you're doing what you're doing. And it can be. It doesn't have to be some big noble thing. It can be, you know, my why is just to support, you know, help support my family to make money, you know, to prove to myself that I can make money or whatever it might be. Right. So connect back to that why and know exactly what that is. And then number two, your number two tool is to have a vivid vision of your future self. And that can be your future self at the end of this year, having achieved the goal that you set out that you set for yourself this year. Or it can be, you know, a longer term future self vision. I have both of those, and I suggest both of those. But I want you to just whatever you can connect to. I know some of the women that I work with, it's really hard for them to connect like three, five, ten years into the future. And that's hard for me too. Like, I thinking 10 years in the future is a little bit too, what's the word? It's too ephemeral for me. Like, I can't connect with that far into the future. But ask me what I want to be doing and what's my vision for who I want to be in three or five years, I can connect to that. And so whatever you can connect to, and especially thinking about this year, think about and have that vision, a vivid vision for the story you want to tell about this year on December 31st of 2024. What is that story? And think about it, like, what is the movie that you want to. To watch about your life on December 31st? And, you know, there's a couple ways that you can kind of capture that. I personally have written a letter to myself, my present self, from my Future Self on December 31, 2024, and told my present self the story of the year. Like, vivid detail about what I accomplished, how I did it. And so I put that into. You can actually use There's a website, futureself.org and you can type that letter in there and then it will email it to you in the future. So I did that and I'm really excited. And I wrote the letter in my journal too so that I can go back and read it because it really helps me to connect, have that vivid vision of where I want to be by the end of this year and thinking about who is the person you want to be in your future as your future self. Because you will be someone in the future. Either that or you'll not no longer be with us. Right? And that's a possibility too, but majority of us are going to make it to the end of this year and we will be someone in the future. And so rather than just leaving that future self to chance, you get to decide right now who you want to be in the future, the kind of person that you want to be. And so connect with her and really have that vivid vision. That's your tool number two and I do encourage you to write that down because then you can go back and each day or periodically when you feel like quitting, you can go back and read that letter, read that journal entry, read that, you know, that set of I am statements, that's another way of doing it. And really connect to that future self that you want to be or that you are becoming. Right? You are becoming her. And then. Okay, tool number three is to connect with who you're serving. So thinking about your best fit client, the clients that you're already serving, the clients that you have served, and those that are all around you, that have yet to join you in your business, right? And think about them and the impact that your work has on them, has on their lives, has on the ripple effect of it, the, the, the impact that it has on all the people around them and just really think about that in a way that connects you and helps you to feel that connection to your higher purpose. Right? And this has been something that has really helped me to shift out of wanting to quit. Shift out of times when I'm just feeling very pessimistic and, you know, just wanting to quit. So it's a great way because when we're in that place where we want to quit, it's often very self focused, right? It's focused on what, how I'm failing and how things aren't working out for me and how I'm not enough or how I'm not doing enough or not doing it right. Or what are all those, you know, all those Things that, that our mind gets stuck in. And when we think about the, the impact that we have and the people that we're serving, it really helps to shift that focus from all of that internal dialogue to focus externally and how we can help and serve and impact our world and our community and our clients. And that really helps me to shift and out of wanting to quit. And then next, your next tool, your number four tool is once you have connected with that, why you've got that vivid future self that you've connected with and you have really connected with those that you're serving and feel all of that in your body, then I want you to really take committed action from there. Take committed and high impact and high value action will come from that place. And when you get out there and take that action and show up in your most brilliant self, right, then that also helps to shift away from the quitting. Because you're out there, you're showing up, you're in the arena, you've got some action going on and you start to see those results and that really helps to shift from the quitting. So, yeah, just getting into action and focusing your action and your attention on the impact that you're making, the people that you are serving will really help to stop you from quitting, from wanting to quit. Right? And then finally, I want you to focus on celebrating and celebrating how far you've come. Now, you know, here we are in January and it's the third week in January when I'm recording this and I want to quit, right? I mean, this is the second take of this podcast and that I wanted to quit, right? But I had to go through my five tools and create the desire to get back here on the microphone and bring this to you because I know it's important. But even in that short amount of time, yeah, I had goals that I, you know, for this year that took effect January 1st, and here I am working towards them and my mind is just like yours, that, you know, where I'm already at this point thinking, well, this isn't working, that's not working. I'm probably not going to make it to my goal. You know, my mind is offering me all of that chatter, but what really helps me get out of that is celebration and focusing on the gain, like focusing on how far I've already come just in the first three weeks of this year. And have I gotten all the way to my goal? No, I've only been at it for three weeks. Right. We still have 49 weeks left in the year. For me to achieve the goal. And so it's going to take, you know, celebrating all the little wins. And so what I do personally is I write down every night before I go to bed, I take a moment and I write my three wins for the day. I also write three, three, three things that I'm grateful for. And in doing that, it helps me to stay focused on and celebrate the gains, how far I have come, even just today. Right. And then each week I can go back and I can read all of those wins that I had all week long. And it helps me remember because I do an evaluation either on Friday or during the weekend of the prior week. And it's so funny how if I sit down and just think about, try to remember all of my wins, you know, my brain comes up with nothing most of the time or one or two things. But if I go back and read all of those wins, I'm like, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. This is been an amazing week. Like, I have accomplished so much this week. I have moved my business and myself forward towards my goals. But if we're not recording those things and keeping track of them, we will forget even in the span of a few days. So make sure that you are celebrating that you are having gratitude for how much you, how far you've come, how much you gain, and just the few days and the few weeks. And so make sure that that tool is in your tool belt because that will take you so far in combating quitters days. Right. And wanting to quit. So those are your five tools. I'm going to recap really quick. So how to not quit. Five different tools that are going to help you. Number one, I want you to connect with your why, why you're doing what you're doing, right, why you're getting out of bed in the morning, who it's for. And number two, have a vivid vision of your future self, even if it's only your Future Self on December 31, 2024. Who is she? Who are you becoming and what will it feel like? The sense of accomplishment to get to that day and not have quit on yourself, on your dream, on your business. Right. Number three, connect with who you're serving, all the folks, the impact that you're having on your clients, on your community, on their families, the ripple effect. Really think about that and just allow that to inspire you. And it's not in a way to inflate your ego, but just to remember that the work you're doing in the world is important because I know it Is. And then number four, use those first three to really get you into action, right? And get into action. Taking high value, high impact, focused, clear action to move the ball forward in your business and towards your goals. Right? Then the final one is to remember to celebrate. Remember to practice gratitude. Remember to focus on the gains. Not how far you are from your goals, but focusing on what you've gained and how much you've grown, how much you've accomplished just today or this week or this month, right? And when you focus there and practice these five tools, use these five tools all year long, you're not going to quit. Quitters Day is going to be just a funny ha ha that, that you can just laugh in the face of and not that you're. The feeling of quitting and wanting to quit, the desire to quit, it's not going to go away. I've been in business almost 19 years and I regularly still have quitters days, right? Quitters moments, quitters, you know, minutes, quitters weeks. I've had quitters months. Really. I have so many. So. But I want you to have these tools because I know they work and I don't want you to quit. I want to just listen up here for a moment. I want you to remember that what you're doing, the work you're doing in the world, is important. I want you to remember that you are an example of what is possible as a woman in entrepreneurship. You're an example to your clients, to your family, to your children, to the little girls out there that are in your life, that are watching you. And for all of us and for all of them, don't quit. I want to just encourage you. The work you're doing is important and I am here to inspire you and to encourage you and always here to support you in whatever way that you need. So feel free to reach out to me. You know how to get in touch with me. And that's what I have for you today, my friends. Don't quit and keep going and practice these skills. Put these tools in your toolbox and use them every day if you have to, like I do. And I will see you again next time. Bye. Hey, if you like this podcast, I would love for you to become a part of my community. Sign up for my Friday Saturday Selley. The link is in the show notes and each Friday I'm going to deliver to your inbox my weekly celebration as well as my thoughts on the latest in business and marketing. And I want to keep you in the know about my upcoming events. Free trainings free gifts, book clubs, all the fun things. And of course, I'm going to send you notification of my latest podcast episodes, so get signed up and I'll see you there.