Everything I have now in my business (a modicum of success, an audience, a powerful network…) I have because I was desperate.
First, I had a dead end job that I just had to quit. Then I had a daughter who I wanted to home with and help her grow up. Next I had a burgeoning business that needed to get super pumped up to continue to exist.
In each case, I let desperation fuel my decisions.
- Use disposable diapers or cloth diaper to save money?
- Visit Starbucks or brew at home?
- Be too proud for help or accept someone’s offer of assistance?
- Play it safe or take a big risk?
- Try to do it all myself or make an investment in my business?
- Call it an early night night or work on another idea?
When you allow yourself to feel desperation, you end up making tough decisions. You push the envelope – you break out of your comfort zone. And you make big things happen for yourself.
Your desperation might be circumstantial, it might be a very real problem you find yourself with, or it might be the passion you have for what you’re working on. Sometimes desperation overwhelms us (don’t let that happen…) but you can also choose to feel it – embrace it – whatever your situation might be.
The trick is turning desperation in action – ideas – fuel.
Where is the desperation coming from in your life right now? What is it fueling you to do?
PS. It’s important to note that I don’t think that being desperate (rash and emotion driven) is the same as acting with a sense of desperation. Just as you can channel a sense of desperation from peaceful thoughts & desires, you can channel a careful desperation from rash emotions.
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Thanks for this post! It gave me a new perspective on the word “desperate”.
Because I’m always curious about language, I looked it up in my usual place and found “of extreme intensity”. Makes sense. I looked around a bit more and found this: desperate – showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort.
Thank you for helping me to find a way to reframe my feelings!
you’re welcome, katrina! thank you so much for sharing the dictionary versions. i love language too – and i’m fascinated by the extra meanings we give things. sounds like desperation might really be something positive after all!
Desperation….hmmm. I think I gave a sense of negative desperation in order to have fun “making” again. To sew with desperate abandon, to design and sell with zeal, and talk about what I do with pride. The desperation of standing still drove me not to be immobile anymore!!
“To sew with desperate abandon, to design and sell with zeal, and talk about what I do with pride.” Um, YES.
Always excellent food for thought, tara! Thanks so much for motivating us every day!
you are so welcome, jessica! thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day!
I’m totally feeling desperate right now. I’m feeling the pressure, and it’s good because it’s pushing me (sometimes screaming and wailing) into a new venture that’s unfamiliar.
I’m not a 100% comfortable right now, but that’s okay. Because I am 110% uncomfortable with not pushing through – if I try and fail, I still succeeded at the trying. If I don’t even do it… well, I wouldn’t think highly of myself.
right on, brandi. you’ve got to push yourself to make your dreams come true.
Tara, it appears as the Gods were planning this post – that you write it, that I READ it – and I am so pleased. You have basically described EXACTLY what is going on for me. The desperation, the dead end job I just have to quit, the daughter (my son). The source of my desperation owes to circumstances, passion and the pursuit of life’s poetry in the midst of what often feels like the inner apocalypse : )
This desperation has fueled me to:
Start a blog and write (something I have always loved but never believed in myself enough to do)
Invite the existence of possibility into my life (making art?POSSIBLE, sharing ideas?POSSIBLE, building dreams?POSSIBLE)
Run.
Look at what I want and take the steps toward it (terrifying and still not sure what I’m doing : )
Thank you for being a voice, a heart, a human out there that I can relate to and for inviting my thoughts.
elana, you are so welcome!! i’m happy you ran into this post too.
i love all the things you say are possible. it is so easy to think of those things as impossible or completely out of reach – but they’re not, we just need to stretch and allow ourselves to BE stretched by our desperation.
go make it happen, sister!
My business was definitely built on desperation!
How else was I to stay at home with my kids, yet still get to do the accounting that I SO enjoyed?! Make a way that I could do it from home! It was a winding path to get to Accounting SPOT, but I am here and SOOO happy about the desperation that brought me here
And now I am finding that within my business desperation is helping shape and adjust how I work. As I take on new clients and time gets tighter and tighter, I am finding more efficient (and eco-friendly at that!) ways to work. I love it!
Thanks for another great post Tara!