Get Past Your Halfway Moments

When pressure mounts, when the world says give up, or ease off the gas…what do you do?

We’ve all taken on tasks, projects, maybe even jobs or careers, that evolve into more complicated and difficult beasts than we initially expected or wanted. When this realization comes, you’ve reached a halfway moment, a moment where you could go either way: quit or push forward. Give up or solider on.

The popular, easier thing to do when your boss shows a rougher side is throw in the towel. You could reason that the grass is greener elsewhere. You could bounce to the next “fun” project or job. You could be one of those people that many of us shake our heads at — highly talented, but always getting hung up and sidetracked or totally derailed by the little things. Worse, you could be the one who gives up mentally, but is there physically.

Or you can remember the big picture. That life beats up all of us in different ways. That even if the grass is greener elsewhere, it’s still just grass. That people make mistakes. That things are always harder before they’re easy. That you’re not really building a career, you’re living a life.

In the sales profession this is more true than in any other. Halfway moments need not be mistakes that need recalled. They can be speed bumps, or dips, as Seth Godin calls them, that simply demand the best of us. Following the path of least resistance never produces greatness.