“The one thing you don’t want to do is usually the one thing you most need to do.”
—Robyn Moreno
I write a lot of healing and inspiration, and it's all usually very poignant and motivating, but underpinning the breakthroughs and feel-good moments is a level of hard work and consistency I eloquently refer to as "The Crap Factor.”
Here’s an example:
I have a client who wants to grow her business, but she’s got some obstacles.
One, she hates social media and subsequently has a small following and not super-high engagement.
Two, she’s a super busy mom-of-three, so she rarely has the time to do IG Lives, launch a podcast, offer free webinars
or any of the things that might help in getting her noticed to the people that would love her work.
I feel like many of us can relate. I HATE "selling myself." And I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I love the connection with people, but posting daily stresses me out.
That said, anything you want to achieve or grow—whether it’s a healthy lifestyle, a loving relationship, or a profitable business—requires you to do things that you just don’t wanna do. Meaning every awesome thing (relationship, dream job, kids) comes with its own percentage of “crap.”
Examples: —You finally have a baby (awesome) but now said baby keep you up all night oblivious to the fact that you too need sleep and sanity.
—You find your dream house (whoo hoo) but now have to commute an hour to work. —You’re inspired to get fit (hallelujah!) but now you have to give up scones (WTF!)
—You got a book deal (yee-haw!) but now you have to sit your butt down and actually write the thing.
Back when I was a TV host, I was offered the opportunity to host my own weekend show in the Hamptons. This was the dream gig I had been waiting for! But it required me to wake up at 4 a.m. every weekend—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And, it was live TV, so it demanded me to ON and fully present.
The Hamptons in the summer can be a really fun place for a single girl (like I was at the time) with lots of events and parties, but I did nearly NONE of that.
While I didn't party hard with my friends that summer having epic adventures with celebs on fancy boats, I did receive an Emmy nomination for all my hard work.
I had to take the good with the crap.
An unexpected side effect of doing what you don’t want to do is that it helps you develop muscles you don’t have. That summer hosting the show, I learned how to produce segments and even do some film editing, valuable skills I didn't have before.
And my busy friend who hated social media got over her fear of looking stupid and now over 50,000 followers—that's like the size of a small village!
So the challenge for you today is to do the thing you are resisting the most, yet know it would be good for you.
Whether it’s taking time out of this beautiful weekend to work on your business plan, or going for a run when you want to sleep in, remember in life we have to take the good with the crap.
xo R