The first 50% of Any Goal, the Learning Curve, and the End Result

One of the things that challenges most people with accomplishing any goal is the earliest phases of accomplishing that goal.  In this phase you are generally frustrated, struggling, and perhaps even tempted to give up.  But as I’ve said before you can get past this first half of your goal, the payoff is worth anything you have to go through. Let’s look at this in further detail.

Lack of Visible Progress: This is probably one of the major things that makes people give up on their goals. The truth is you’re not going to actually see your progress in the earliest stages of your goal. What you’re going to see is the struggle. What you should know is that if you keep focusing on what you can do today, the sum of it all will be you accomplishing your goal.  Think about almost anything you’ve learned how to do in life. If you speak more than one language, you probably sucked when you first started. Over time your skill developed and you now can speak a language fluently. If you play a sport or play an instrument then it’s likely you’ve experienced the same sort of thing.

Learning Curves: There are certain things that have a relatively steep learning curve. In other words they are classified as difficult to learn. But what’s interesting about steep learning curves is that once you hit the upswing you start to progress really fast and eventually you kick AS#$# at whatever it is you’re trying to learn.

Learning to Surf: In the last few weeks I’ve had many friends ask me about learning how to surf. Learning how to surf sucks because it’s really hard at first. That first phase is truly an uphill battle of getting tossed around by the ocean like a ragdoll and getting your AS#$# handed to you over and over again. Sometimes you’ll even think you’re going to drown (but you don’t). It took me going surfing 15 times before I could even stand up on my board. This was before I knew that the hardest part of catching a wave is standing up on your board. So, I have to caution any friends that the learning phase is really not going to be much fun, but if you are willing to commit to it, when you get over the hump it will be COMPLETELY WORTH IT.

Blogging: In the last few weeks one sentiment I’ve heard echoed over and over again is “blogging is a long term investment.” After a year of doing this, I still have not broken the 1000 subscriber mark (at least not at the time of writing this), but I’ve made a point to be consistent. The people that you consider “famous” today persisted through that first 50%. In fact, I encourage you to go and look at the very first posts of 10 really famous bloggers. It’s likely there are no comments, hardly any tweets, and the post actually kind of sucks. These people are no different than you and me. They just have really pushed through the tough times, pushed through the dip, and come out the other side as rockstars.

The End Results: If you do what you need to do and focus on that, then it is inevitable that you will reach your end result. If you go surfing 3 times a week, eventually you’ll figure out how to stand up on the damn board. If you write blog posts at least 3 times a week for a year, then you’ll learn what it takes to be successful as a blogger. If you exercise every single day and maintain a good diet, you’ll loose weight. Just don’t fall victim to the lack of visible progress and give up.

What’s been your experience with this? Have you had certain goals that you never thought you’d accomplish and then hit the tipping point? I’d love to hear your thoughts.