#4 - Feb. 2024 - Facing and Overcoming Challenges to Your Motivation and Focus
#4 - Feb. 2024 - Facing and Overcoming Challenges to Your Motivation and Focus
Handling life's tests: Staying motivated and focused amid challenges.
📈 Monthly stats
𝕏 (Twitter) followers: 134
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): 0€
Projects launched: 0
Newsletter subscribers: 12
Hey everyone 👋,
Today, I’d like to talk about the most recent challenge I faced, which, although I believe is not often discussed among solopreneurs, is actually very common.
Whether it's personal matters, lack of sleep, or your projects not meeting your expectations, events outside of your control will always happen. There's a big chance they will affect your current state of mind: your motivation may decline, and you may lose focus for a while. This can lead to missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.
It is part of your journey, so it would be wise to learn how to manage these challenges.
📉 The After-Launch
If you followed my adventures on 𝕏 or if you’ve read my previous newsletter, you are probably aware that last month, I released my first project as a solopreneur : Quotell.
The final days and weeks before the release were a bit tense because I was committed to sticking to my deadline. So, when Quotell was finally launched, I was relieved to be able to rest and relax for a while before moving on to the next project.
But then, just when I expected to enjoy increasing downloads, user sign-ups on Quotell, and my first earnings, reality hit me. After a few downloads (fewer than 10) from some of my followers on 𝕏, there was no further activity. I spent three months creating Quotell, and now, one month post-release, I have yet to earn a single dollar.
Coming from a technical background, I spent most of my time developing the project and not enough on marketing and communication. It became clear that this was a mistake, and I'd need to improve in these areas.
This was the first blow to my motivation and focus.
👥 The #buildinpublic community on 𝕏
When I began my solopreneur journey, I quickly discovered the #buildinpublic community on 𝕏. It is very positive community, full of solopreneurs sharing their journeys, successes, failures, tips, and advice. It's an exceptionally kind and supportive community where everyone is friendly, offers help, and fosters motivation.
It's very easy to find yourself absorbed by all the stories and advice you read. You can learn from everyone on many different topics, and you find yourself wanting to connect with more solopreneurs and interact with them. You feel surrounded by amazing people in the same boat, which makes you feel stronger and more motivated. At least, at first...
Valuable tweets get lost in the ocean of everyday updates.
After spending some time on 𝕏, I began to notice another aspect of this community. While I understand that those offering advice and tips have good intentions, their perspectives are also influenced by a desire to gain more followers. They often tweet about various topics, multiple times a day, in an effort to expand their audience and achieve the next milestone.
This leads to valuable tweets getting lost in this ocean of everyday updates.
After realizing that, I cut back on my time on 𝕏. I don't care about having lots of followers. I'd rather post less often but with real value. I don't want to tweet every day just to please the algorithm.
I guess the lesson to learn from this is to find your own balance between the benefits you gain from the #buildinpublic community and the time you decide to invest in it.
😔 The personal stuff
The final reason my motivation and focus declined involves personal issues I've recently faced. Without going into detail, I began to doubt many aspects of my life, including my work. I found myself questioning, 'Why am I doing this? Why continue as a solopreneur when I could simply return to a regular 9 to 5 job?'.
Additionally, I suffered a sports injury, forcing me to miss competitions. If you’re a competitor yourself, you know how frustrating it can be.
With everything adding up, I listened to my body and decided to rest to take a break from work for a week. That was my solution to find the resources to get back to my 100%.
Life throws unpredictable challenges at us all every now and then. Find the solution that works best for you in handling these challenges and don’t let the pressure get to your head.
🎬 That’s it for today, folks!
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Until next time, happy creating! 🚀✨
Great share Vivien! Marketing is key and unfortunately 70% of projet building time, even more maybe.
Your next project will be different now that you failed and learned :)