Your Personal Foundation
Have you ever set a goal, only to find yourself giving up before you even reach the finish line? It’s a scenario many of us are familiar with: the promise to achieve something within a certain timeframe, but as the months and even years roll by, we’re left feeling discouraged and like we’ve failed. However, in moments when something truly matters to us, giving up is not an option.
In this article, we’ll explore the idea of building a strong foundation for success, not only in the business world but also in your personal life. By examining real-life scenarios and setbacks, we’ll uncover the importance of persevering and understanding that you’ve already laid the groundwork for your ambitions, even when it may not seem obvious. So, let’s delve into how this concept can be applied to your journey and help you push through the challenges, setbacks, and self-doubt.
How many times have you set a goal and have given up? You tell yourself that you’ll achieve something in 3 months and you don’t do it. Sometimes it’s even longer, like a year. What happens at the end of that timeframe?
- You get discouraged
- You start feeling like a failure
- You give up
After all, what else can you do? You gave it a good shot and you didn’t succeed.
If it’s something that’s truly important to you, you don’t give up. You look at it differently.
Building a Business Foundation
Before we dwell into how this can apply to your personal life, let’s take a look at the business world.
I had an opportunity to speak to one of my previous employers recently. He felt like he was stuck. Business isn’t growing and he doesn’t know what he can do differently.
He started by saying that he’s ready for retirement. I know this guy. He can’t not work.
I asked him, “after you go hunting and fishing for the next year, what are you going to do then?”
He didn’t have a good response for me. He admitted that he has no idea.
I told him that the most interesting thing for him would be to buy another business after he sold this one.
He instantly lit up and started coming up with plans on what he would do with that business.
I then asked him the following question:
“Why don’t you just pretend you bought this business?”
He looked at me with his wheels spinning.
I continued, “you have a business with a 40 year foundation. Which would you rather try to build? A business with 40 years behind them or a brand new business?”
He pulled his partners in and told them that “they were going to sit inside his office until they came up with a strategy for going forward.”
“Guys, we have a 40-year foundation already built. We’re way further ahead than all of our competitors that have started in the last 5 years. We can do this. We simply need a change in mindset.”
How Does This Apply to You?
I think for quite a few of you, the wheels have already begun spinning. How many projects have you started and not finished?
I have these conversations with my wife all the time.
Exercise
“It’s been a year since I’ve started to work out this intensively. I don’t feel like I’ve made enough progress.”
And then I snap out of it: “Wait, one year I was running at 4.5 on the treadmill for 1 minute and losing my breath. I’m doing a 9 minute mile now. I’ve built an incredibly solid foundation. Imagine where I’ll be 1 year from now.”
“Crap, I just injured my shoulder. I’ve been doing triceps extensions at 175lbs and Chest Fly's at 280lbs I can’t get anywhere close to that anymore.”
I instantly snap out of it: “Wait a minute. I started doing triceps extensions at 50lbs. So what if I dipped to 145lbs. I’ll go down to 120lbs and make sure to not injure myself any further while keeping my shoulder slightly working.”
Sometimes it takes a week and other times a couple of months. Who cares? Was I going to stop exercising completely? Absolutely not. I can now focus more on cardio, lower body, core, back to certain extent, etc.
The idea is to understand that you’ve built a foundation and setbacks occur. Keep moving forward.
Writing
I was a writing machine. I would publish an article each day here on Medium. That was part of my routine. I also got that dopamine hit by seeing my reader-base increase and my article reach hit new milestones.
Then, Chat GPT came out. Everything plummeted. I, like most, became discouraged with writing. I started questioning why I was doing it in the first place.
I told myself that I would take a break from it until I figured that out. Well, I figured it out and it has nothing to do with the amount of views I’m getting. I want to become an author.
I immediately thought “I wish I never stopped writing. Now I’m going to have to start all over.”
I, again, immediately snapped back into reality: “I’ve written nearly 500 articles on Medium. That’s a hell of a foundation. I just need to keep going.”
Children
I hear parents talk about how “they feel like their kids are not doing well in school and probably never will.” They’re constantly discouraged that their kids are bringing home bad grades. They feel like failures.
The first question I always ask, “do you believe that you’ve done everything you can for your child?” The answer is always a defensive, “Yes!”
Truthfuly speaking, “how many hours do you spend with them studying? What subjects do they struggle with the most? Have your prioritized those? Can you afford a tutor? Maybe they just don’t want to listen to you.”
Once they come up with a plan, I say: “this is you now building a foundation for your child. You have to give it some time. The changes are not going to be instantaneous. Give it a year. After one year, you can tell yourself that you’ve helped them build a foundation. If after another year or so they’re not doing well, you’ve done all you can and shouldn’t be discouraged. Keep going though. Just imagine how far ahead your child is because of the foundation that you’ve helped them pave and how far behind they would have been if you didn’t.”
Summary
I could keep writing this article forever. I have a busy schedule like everyone else. It’s Saturday and I’m working out as I write this. I do one set, and as I’m resting for 90 seconds, I just on my computer and write a couple of sentences.
To my left is my whiteboard where I have conveniently written down the following:
“You’ve set the framework for so many foundations. Time to capitalize on them.”
I hope you can do the same and I wish you the best.
Dino Cajic is the Chief Information Officer at Absolute Biotech, the parent company of LSBio (LifeSpan BioSciences, Inc.), Absolute Antibody, Kerafast, Everest BioTech, Nordic MUbio and Exalpha. He has a B.S. in Computer Science, a minor in Biology, and over a decade of software engineering experience. His background consists of creating enterprise level e-commerce applications, performing research based software development, and facilitating the spread of knowledge through writing.
You can connect with him on his website or his LinkedIn, follow him on Instagram, or subscribe to his Medium publication.
