STOP SPINNING YOUR WHEELS: Don't let your life fall through the cracks between perseverance & insanity

Andrea Buck, Founder and CEO Successful Creative, "The line you are looking for is to be found in refection"

Have you worked hard and sacrificed and given your heart and soul to your job, your art, your career… but the success you have dreamed of still eludes you?

Ever feel like you’re working your guts out but getting nowhere fast enough, or far enough?

Ever feel like you're stuck in some strange loop — same actions, same dead ends, same rejection?

OR

Regardless of your successes, the feeling of ‘enoughness’ still eludes you?

HANG ON … MAYBE YOU NEED TO TRY HARDER!

  "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

   Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

   Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

   Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.

   Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

— Calvin Coolidge

No, I really don’t think that sounds like your problem!

Have you wondered,

Am I being persistent enough… or am I delusional about this big beautiful dream? Should I keep going? Or is it time to quit?

You’re not alone. In fact, you might be caught in the most dangerous place of all:

SPINNING YOUR WHEELS — burning energy, staying busy, but getting nowhere.

You are not lazy.

You are talented, creative, generous, hard-working, trained and tenacious

You keep at it because you know that the reality of working in the creative industries is brutal.

You know that to be successful you MUST work hard, network, be tenacious, talented, a bulldog …

You must be able to handle rejection and failure because only a small % of projects ever get made, and when they do achieve either critical or financial success, that success is fleeting.

But what if perseverance is NOT the problem?

What if you have been spinning your wheels in that quiet place between PERSEVERANCE and INSANITY???????

Perhaps hustling harder is not the answer.

So many creatives pour decades into a dream with no clarity whether they should still be keeping it alive?

But how do you know?

Sure, you know that you can’t bang your head against a wall indefinitely.

But what do you do instead?

This dilemma is close to my heart. I understand perseverance and tenacity, never taking no for an answer and perpetual striving.

This particular conundrum has been by my side for decades. I have worked relentlessly, and never accepted a mediocre life. I have had big dreams and the energy, drive and tenacity to keep going long after most would have given up the ghost. That combination has been both a wonderful, fruitful blessing, but also deadly.

Believe me, I have thought about this a lot. I am at that wise end of life, when you have been around the block many times, have tried and failed, have tried and flourished, and have in those years, and through those challenges, learned so very much.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"

This quote is oft attributed to Einstein, but it may be Rita Mae Brown, who also said,

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment"

When, in the past, when I thought about this idea that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I wondered – am I insane?

Or, I wondered, is it true that we need to keep on persevering, lest we quit five minutes before the breakthrough!

The answer is really quite simple.

BOTH ARE TRUE

You cannot succeed, especially in the insanely competitive creative industries without tenacity and perseverance … AND ALSO … doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result certainly is INSANITY.

So, what to do instead?

•  What if you could stop spinning your wheels, and start moving with ease and purpose?

•  Get crystal clear on when to keep going

•  Gain clarity and direction on your life, career and what matters to you?

I have designed a FREE one-hour webinar where together we can engage in the far more impactful process of developing a practice of clear and gentle reflection.

Like most of life, there is no simple solution, a yes or no, a right or wrong. True success, true fulfilment come from a nuanced, contemplated practice of constant refection followed by tiny consistent adjustments to your direction.

What you need is CLARITY and DIRECTION

You know that you are worth it.

Isn’t it time to stop grinding in the wrong direction?

If this resonates with you and you are sick of going it alone, wearing out, burning out, losing inspiration and losing hope ... OR ... if you know that life is precious, time is your most precious commodity and you can reach higher from standing on the shoulder of giants (or just a strong, wise coach) ...

Then reach out for a complementary chat.

I have programs, and private coaching that speak directly to this.

Tick ... f*ing Tock ... the sound of life passing by.

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