5 Quotes to Read When Goals Seem Impossible

Three months ago, I had to leave my day job and was left with just my savings and emergency funds. They’re not much, but I’m lucky I still have money. I don’t have any other source of income, so normally I would look for a new job. But instead, I decided to take a risk. I left the corporate life to pursue self-employment.

But how far will my savings take me? I thought, I need to earn money ASAP.

I just wanted to earn from doing what I love, full-time. I wanted to pursue my ikigai. If you haven’t heard of that term, I’ll be happy to introduce it to you.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being.” Or as some of us put it: a reason to get up in the morning.

The concept of ikigai is still often confused with the Zuzunaga Venn Diagram of Purpose: the balance between what you love + what you can be paid for + what you are good at + what the world needs.

The ikigai doesn’t have to be in all these four circles, but I follow it. (I’ll talk more about this later on)

Along with my twin sister, dad, and boyfriend — I started focusing on building my dream brand called keep function. It’s my ikigai.

Like any other businesses, results don’t appear overnight. And as I’m writing this, we haven’t even finished the products yet. The way I saw it, I’ll probably lose all my money before I even get to sell anything. It makes me anxious.

I understand we never know what the future holds. But I still have this fear of working so hard on something, and not knowing if it’ll ever be successful. I was aware that creating a brand is a long, hard process. But I realized, I’ve never actually produced anything because I was so afraid to fail. I just kept planning and never took action.

Whenever I felt anxious, I followed 5 steps to calm my mind — in the form of quotes:

STEP 1:

“Action relieves anxiety.”

“Working on a problem reduces the fear of it. It’s hard to fear a problem when you are making progress on it — even if progress is imperfect and slow. Action relieves anxiety.” — James Clear

The thought of ending up being broke is scary. So I decided to hold the brand for a while, and looked for ways I can earn money faster than my dream.

I started applying to online jobs that I like, but I failed at all of them. It was either I got rejected, or nobody replied to me. It came to a point of thinking, maybe I should go back to a full-time job? If not, should I try easy and low-paying gigs online?

But I promised myself to choose only what I believe is useful work for me. I only looked for opportunities that could land me another opportunity. Hitting two birds with one stone, if I must call it. I know that sounds idealistic to some, but I also know I’m not alone. Many of us don’t wish to work just for the money.

Not all of us are privileged enough to have options in life. I’m very thankful that I can choose to do what I love. So I did. Otherwise, I’d just feel burned out again. We often forget this, but happiness is essential.

I learned that when I get anxious, I just need to find what else I can do. Even if I’m not confident my solutions will work, I just need to move.

STEP 2:

“If there are nine rabbits on the ground and you want to catch one, just focus on one.”

— Jack Ma

I felt the shift from anxious to motivated when I stopped overplanning and started taking action. I was able to do many things. But being an emotional person, anxiety visits again!

I easily got overwhelmed having a lot in my to-do list. It felt like I was working on 100 things with each only 20% done. I needed to complete just one.

There are people whose concern is not knowing what they want in life. And there are people like me who want to do so many things, that sometimes I just don’t know where to start.

I realized that even though I’ve checked a lot on my list, I didn’t actually focus on what’s important. I told myself that it’s okay, at least I got some things done. But this time, I should focus on an important task and complete it 100%. It will give me a better sense of achievement. You know, it’s hard to get motivated when we feel like everything’s hard to achieve.

Big or small goals, if you feel overwhelmed — just focus on one.

STEP 3:

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”

— Zig Ziglar

If one time you’ve succeeded on moving forward after feeling hopeless, and then later on you feel hopeless again — just think of motivation as a living thing. It needs to be awakened. We can refresh it in many ways.

As for me, I read quotes that I’ve written down as reminders whenever I need them. I listen to Jason Mraz or BTS. I talk to people. I watch Netflix to find inspiration. It’s a long list!

I didn’t mean to literalize the quote, but try taking a bath (if you haven’t.) I have to admit, this pandemic situation has stopped me from taking a bath daily. But anyway, they say it can help make you feel ready and refreshed.

When anxiety comes, remember to try inviting motivation into your space, as if they’re a person. How do you contact them?

In my attempt to learn productivity, I read this advice to create a system instead of just goals. The system will allow me to build habits leading to where I want to be.

Part of my system is knowing how to motivate myself during down times. There are days when it’s tempting to quit. It’s never easy, but I remind myself to slow down and pause. And when I’ve finally pulled myself up, I call it an achievement.

STEP 4:

“Progress, not perfection.”

Michael Hyatt says that perfectionism is the mother of procrastination.

A procrastinator struggles to begin a task. While a perfectionist struggles to complete it. And when we try to achieve perfection, we just won’t complete anything simply because nothing is perfect.

Speaking of motivation, I also learned that the reason why we procrastinate is because we want to stay away from negative feelings.

We delay tasks because we already think that it will be tiring or boring. We may think something bad is going to happen, or that we’re going to do poorly. And so we choose to do something more fun and comfortable instead. Then we keep choosing that because we are naturally drawn to rewards. It’s just how the brain works.

I learned to break down a task into smaller steps to make it look easier. I often get frustrated when I feel like my work doesn’t produce results. But I try to remind myself, if I just take one step forward, then I’m already one step closer to my goals.

Focus on progress, not perfection.

If I could time travel, I would tell my younger self: Enne, it’s okay. Just start. No one is ever ready, but that’s what makes life interesting! Stop overthinking. Just. friggin. start.

STEP 5:

“Be kind to yourself, then let your kindness fill the world.”

— Pema Chodron

I’m aware that some people believe that pressure is what really gets us going. That’s okay! We all have our differences.

But I believe that most of the time, too much of anything is not good. I think a balance of kindness and pressure is effective.

I realized that I’m often too hard on myself. And so when I started to become more accepting, I recognized how it got easier to make progress.

These quotes teach a lesson individually. But together, they suggest one thing: It’s difficult to work when we’re overwhelmed.

Being kind to yourself means taking care of your own body and mind. You don’t abuse your body with overworking. You don’t compare yourself to others. You don’t beat yourself up when you fail to reach your crazy, impossible standards. To be kind is to feed your mind with encouraging thoughts.

When we practice self-love, we gain confidence. When we have confidence, it’s easier to step forward.

Just imagine how much you’ll be able to accomplish if you were kind to yourself.

To be honest, writing this makes me feel somehow ironic.

Some annoying energy inside me makes me feel pretentious sharing my knowledge, knowing I don’t apply them well 100% of the time. But then again, learning is a nonstop process. I acknowledge that my intention is good — to learn, improve, and share it around. 🌱

Completing my tasks still takes me longer than I expect, and still harder than I often think. But I feel like I’m a better version of myself now.

Yes, I still get anxious sometimes. But I can just go back to step 1 anytime.

Thanks for your time!

My name is Enne, and I do graphic design + photography.

Can I help you with my skills? 😊 See my work here.