How damn can you start at square zero countless times to reach success?
How can you do that when you put all your efforts and limited sources to just get nothing? Where can you find courage and motivation if you feel defeated?
Those questions come to my mind every time I put my limited resources, and it turns out that life hit me in the face and throw me back.
Working hard and sacrifice things that matter to you are not a warranty to achieve your goals or what you suppose is going to achieve.
Even after doing it that way, life will throw you at square zero over and over, you want it or not.
That special part of life’s game is really sad and discouraging for all of us. Yet, that situation is the right space where you can become stronger and be ahead of the rest.
The more discouraging the situation is, the stronger you can become — Blarz
Dealing, building, and improving the ability to start over and over again is one of the most underestimated keys to reach success — put it simply, anything in your life.
Let me walk you through how I have been building this skill throughout my life and the most important how this could help you too.
Starting at square zero after countless rejections
I have been rejected a hundred times trying to get hired for my dream job.
I have failed more than five times trying to become an entrepreneur, I failed ridiculously. Likewise, I have lost money that it was never mine, it was all loans. I am still feeling the effect of it nowadays.
I sold my father’s inheritance trying to get a Canadian visa and move abroad, and guess what? I lost all that money in just two months.
Not only that, I didn’t pass the driver’s license road test the first time, I felt like a complete failure. I didn’t pass a test to get a scholarship to study abroad. The list goes on.
I have failed countless times in different aspects and fields of my life.
Does it matter the number of failures?. A resounding NOT.
What really matters is the way you reflect and the action plan you create to get through. By doing it, you are quietly building the skill of starting at square zero again.
In the end, the number of rejections is just a relation between who you are now and who you were yesterday.
Tom Bilyeu, a successful entrepreneur, founder of the Impact Theory as always says pain + reflection=progress.
Ok, little Bob, you have just said what others have said over and over. So please, the question here is how to build that skill when you are hurt and with a feeling of defeat?
Ok, I will share with you what I did and also what I usually do all the time.
Preparation is everything. The war is won in the mind first.
The war here means anything you are trying to achieve. Get your dream job, get out of debt, get accepted your writing pieces or publishing and featured in a major publication, being successful as an entrepreneur, get a new relationship, get in shape, being healthier, or whatever your goal is.
Being prepared doesn’t mean that when life will hit you in the face and throws you back at square zero, it is not going to hurt you. By no means!.
Neither means it won’t’ break any aspiration and dream you have. For sure, it will.
But here is where things turn powerful. Here is what separates successful people and not.
The more aware of the impact and effects of the knock you are, the more endure you will have against it. Therefore, it means you should be prepared to embrace and overcome it.
Having the right mindset
I have read this countless times. It sounds simply easy but isn't.
Once you have prepared to face the impact and effects of your decisions, it is time to put it into practice whenever the cyclone(failure, mistake, embarrassment, rejection) makes landfall on you.
You have read hundreds of posts, books, podcasts, and successful people saying “the right mindset is everything”. isn’t it? You may think, come on Bob, this is the same cliche stuff.
But wait for a moment and continue reading.
The truth about the right mindset is that most of us will fail to set it when things went wrong since there’s a sad feeling. There’s no way to feel good due to you had put all the effort and sources to get nothing.
Yet even, under tough moments like depression, disappointments, rejections, anxiety, or failures we can set the right mindset.
Your mission is to convince your brain that everything will be OK.
Yet, this process is not overnight, it becomes easier as long as you have gone through several failures and mistakes. So the more failures, the more opportunities to train your brain.
Once this is done, your brain can easily embrace it and start to think it’s going to pass soon.
Focus on how much forward you have gone
Starting at square zero means you need to have the courage to get up over and over again. Hang in there! Even when there’s no light at all.
This mindset is so tied with the fact of how badly you want to reach your goals in life.
Whenever life throws me back to square zero, the first thing I seed on my head is, the thought that I was born with the skills to never give up. They will give up first, and then I will win. I am stronger than failures and rejections.
I seed enough courage to start again, they will not defeat my ridiculous obsession to get where I want to achieve.
So I look back and see how much forward I have gone.
Progress is no measured by the result of the day but by the things you got started that day. — Unknown
Therefore, a rejection is not the measure but the everyday decision you took to put your ass off and started to work on the tasks.
- Take your time to digest that fuc*** time, cry if you want, you have the right to do it and this is needed as human beings, or talk with someone you trust to get out your feelings. You will feel better.
Just roll with it
You cannot change the result when life hits you in the face, but you can play with new cards that will change the result of the next attempt.
This is what I do
- Create an action plan with what went wrong, what went well, and what you will do to achieve the goal you have in mind.
- Track every action item of the action plan. If something is not working, I adjust it to my own reality.
Ending thoughts
Damn! It’s really hard to start at square zero several times in order to reach certain success.
This is even worse when you lost everything to get nothing.
The quietly and good thing is that thanks to this I have achieved things I couldn’t ever think would be possible.
I became a writer with zero background, zero English, a programmer, and a stoppable mindset. In the end, a better human being.
Remember, preparation is everything. This is key to build the skill of starting at square zero countless times if you want to reach success in your life.
I hope, this post turns to be out helpful to your life.