Welcome to Visionaries Pursuit, a podcast where we explore what it takes to turn your bold and inspiring ideas into reality. I'm Carolina Zuleta. I'm a life and a business coach and your host for this podcast. I'm thrilled to have you here. Welcome back. And this is episode 18. And we're continuing talking about the theme of goal setting and visioning.
And today, I want us to talk about when to give up. What is the right moment to say, You know what? This is not my goal. I'm not going to continue pursuing it. I'm giving up. When we decide to pursue a goal, in our brains, in a very fast way, we estimate the amount of time and energy achieving that goal is going to take.
If you're raising money for your business, you think, okay, I'm going to give myself six months. I'm going to make this number of pitches and probably that is going to give me the result of having the cash I need to start my business. Or if you're launching a new product and you say, okay, it's going to take a year to break even, right?
You make a calculation as to when you think you're going to achieve that goal. But, the truth is that it usually takes more time and more energy than we think it's going to take. And this is one of the reasons why many people quit, many people give up, because they had estimated That they will raise the money for their business in six months.
And it's been a year and they still don't have it. So they conclude, you know, what is not feasible is not going to work. People don't believe in this business. We'll never make it happen. They launch a new product or they open a new store. And it didn't break even in the time they thought it was going to break even, so they decide it was a failure and they close it or they give up.
But what I want to tell you today is that because it's taking longer than you think it was going to take or it's requiring more energy than you thought it was going to be required, those are not good reasons to give up. Some years ago, a friend called me. She had gone to med school and she had applied for her residency and hadn't got it.
And a year had gone by and she had applied again for her residency and she didn't get it. She was at a place where she had to wait another year to apply again without knowing if she was going to get it or not. And she was very frustrated. She had spent hours studying. She had spent lots of money and her career at that moment was on a limbo.
Was she going to get the residency so she could become a doctor or what was going to happen? And she called me and we talked about this, and I remember her telling me, Kato, maybe the universe doesn't want this for me. Maybe I wasn't born to be a doctor. Maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe just this career is not for me.
Maybe I should quit. So then I asked her, well, do you still want to be a doctor? And she didn't skip a bit. And she said, 100%. That is my dream. I want to be a doctor. I want to help people. I want to be treating patients. So, I was like, there's your answer. If you still want this with all your heart, why are you going to quit?
Yes, you thought you were going to get it on the first round or on the second round, and now you have to wait an entire year. I know that's hard, but it's still your dream. Why are you going to quit? And then that year she got in, and I've always wondered how many people quit when they're so close to get to their finish line.
Because it's taking longer than they thought it was going to take. So, if you're thinking about giving up because your goal is taking too long, it's taking more money or more energy, I want you to ask yourself, Do I really want this today? If I know I was going to be successful in the next year with this, do I want it?
And if the answer is yes, then keep pursuing it. If you really want something, don't give up because it's taking more time or more energy. Another way I think many of us give up is because we take the foot of the pedal when we're seeing the finish line coming up. So let's say you set up a goal of selling 1, 000, 000 in your products or services.
And as you're approaching that, let's say you've sold 800, 000 or 900, 000, you think to yourself, well, I got there. So you stop working as hard or you stop marketing like you were or you stop having conversations with people. And then you don't meet the goal and then you beat yourself up or create a story that says, I can't be successful.
I see it also with people who are looking for a job. The moment they get the first offer, they stop networking, they stop applying for jobs. And I actually believe that when we're 90 percent to the goal is the moment that we need to use that momentum, that confidence we've built from achieving so much to double down in our goal and cross the finish line hard.
If you ever watch the track and field race, you've probably seen that the runners don't stop before the finish line. They actually continue running as hard as they can past the finish line. And that's what we need to learn from them. Whatever the goal is we're pursuing when we're getting closer, we need to double down, not give up in smaller ways, not take your foot off the pedal, because that can stand in the way of you achieving your goal.
Another reason why I see people giving up is because the path. It's not how they expected it to be. We get too attached to the how we're going to get there and we get, and we confuse our vision with the how. So for example, if you're an entrepreneur and you have a business and your vision is to expand your business three times, 5X, 10X.
And the way you're going to do it is by opening new stores. And when you open the first store, it's not working. That store is failing. So then you think, Oh, I can't expand my business. This is not working. But you have to remember that that opening of that store is how you're expanding your business. It's the way you're trying to achieve your vision, but it's not the vision itself.
And I think a lot of us get confused between the vision and the how. Is your vision to open that specific store? Or is your vision to grow your business by 10x? Is your vision to make that specific movie? Or is your vision to be a filmmaker that has an impact? Is your vision to become an entrepreneur? Or is your vision to have this specific business?
So in order to not give up, we have to be very clear in what is our vision and what is the way we are achieving that vision and not confuse them. And maybe your vision is to open that specific store. So, if that's what you want, you need to figure out how to have that store. I'm not saying that opening a store or doing one specific movie or having a very specific business cannot be your vision.
That can be your vision. I just want you to not confuse your bigger vision, what drives you, what really makes you wake up in the morning, with the how you're going to get there. One of the women that I most admire is Diana Nyad. Diana Nyad is a swimmer. And she is the only person in the world who has swum from Cuba to the United States without a cage to protect her from sharks.
For me, Diana is an example of not giving up, of persistence. You can learn all about her story in a movie that is in Netflix called Nyad, N Y A D. I really recommend all of you to see it if you haven't already. Because I think her mindset is something we all need to learn in order to achieve our bigger visions.
So Diana had this vision for herself to swim from Cuba to the U. S. Her vision was not to be a professional swimmer. Her vision was not to swim X number of miles. Her vision was to do that specific journey while swimming. She also wanted to do it without being in a cage to protect her from sharks. She tried multiple times and multiple times she failed.
At one point, she almost died because this jellyfish that live in the Atlantic Ocean started attacking her and she almost died. At another point, her team said, listen, we're not going to do this with you. You're crazy. This is insane. Nobody in the world has done it. And yet she was so committed to her goal.
She was so committed to her vision. That she figured out a way to gather a team, gather the money, gather the equipment she needed, and she accomplished it. So when to give up, right? That is the question I wanted us to talk about. And honestly, I think that the only moment that is worthy giving up is when we decide that we no longer want that vision.
That we no longer want that goal, that is no longer aligned to our values or what we want for our life. But if you want something, if you have a dream, I encourage you to continue pursuing it. Even if it takes longer than you thought. Even if the way or the how you thought you were going to get there is not working.
Even if nobody else has done it or people tell you you're crazy for continuing to pursue that. Even your heart, you know that you want it. Keep going, and be smart about it. Learn, try new things, get a new community, find the right people that are gonna help you get there. But don't give up. I believe your dreams are your compass to your destiny, and your desires are the way you know where you should be going.
So pursue your vision with everything you have. And I'll finish by sharing something my dad told me when I started this business. He said, do you want to be successful? So you must resist, persist, insist. And never desist. So my friends, if you have that desire, don't give up, keep going for it. And I'll be here to cheer you all along.
See you next time.
If you're currently pursuing a big, bold idea and would love some support, let's talk. In my coaching program, I'll teach you how to manage yourself, your own thoughts and emotions, as well as your team and your money. So you can turn your beautiful idea into a reality. Go now to. carozuleta. com slash consult.
That is C A R O Z U L E T A dot com slash consult. And complete the form to book a complimentary call with me. See you there!
