The Number One Obstacle to Success We All Fall Prey to

It’s quite a conniption.

Why did you start your side hustle? Was it because you dreamed of the freedom and flexibility that accompanied being your own boss? It’s tempting to dream about your hard work paying dividends while you’re relaxing somewhere poolside, without a worry in the world.

But there’s a fine line in there between working hard to achieve your dreams and working too hard. Do you know the difference?

Success is an overnight thing.

Kind of, but not really. I’ve heard it described as an hourglass, and that’s what I picture when I think of success.

You start at the bottom where all things are possible and you try as many of those things that you like as you can until you can whittle away at it until you decide on a handful of things that work for you. Similarly, you will start with a large audience that will slowly taper away until you get a core of people that will stick with you.

It’s once you hit that pinnacle that the reverse happens. You’re in the bottleneck where you have a clearly defined idea of what your successful business can be and you have an audience that is ideal for what it is you’re offering. And then it multiplies.

There is a lot of legwork until that point.

Successful people love to write headlines like ‘How I made $20,000 in one month from *fill in the blank*’ but I know they gloss over the difficulties that they encountered before they got there. I’ll account for anomalies, but generally speaking, overnight success only comes from many nights of trying and failing.

But the main thing that we all fall prey to is working too much or too little. We work to get to a point where our work makes money while we’re sleeping, but how to define that point?

Naturally, you think that you can relax when your work is paying the bills. But when your work still isn’t making that cut, should you work to the point of exhaustion?

The law of attraction and success.

Success is a little bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. There is any number of people that can tell you they have the blueprint that will guarantee you will be successful, but not really. What works for their lives and audiences might not work for you and yours.

So it begs the question, are you working too hard or not hard enough? There is a balance that you have to strike in your own life that will allow you to be happy and successful while you’re working on your dreams. Do you know what that balance is?

There reaches a point in work where you risk the threat of burnout and possibly even resentment toward what you’re working for. Definitely avoid that. But it can work both ways. Either you think you should be making more on the little bit you’re putting out, or you should be making more on the excess you’ve put out.

You have to hit your bottom.

Maybe this isn’t true for everyone but I know that in my life and business I have had to adjust several times. There are times of the year when circumstances beyond my control limit my ability to work on my business. And there are times that I spend too much time on my business and miss out on life.

But those experiences helped me outline boundaries that help me do both. And once you have boundaries that you have found work for you, you have to communicate them to the people in your life that are inherent to those boundaries.

When you work for yourself and work from home, friends and loved ones tend to think that you’re just free all the time. That you can work on your business later, but you can do whatever with them whenever because isn’t that the point? And you happen to agree sometimes until you strike out one way or the other.

Be clear about what you can’t miss out on.

You have to make sacrifices on both fronts. There are going to be events that you have to miss with friends or family so you can pay the bills this month. And there are projects you’ll have to postpone so you don’t miss important events in people’s lives.

Working from home and being your own boss sounds like a dream come true until you have to boss yourself around. Just be sure to make sure that the balance you strike makes you filled with joy.

As Gabby Bernstein likes to say, “Do less and attract more.”

Just be sure to do enough.

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