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Do not give up! There are the times when despite our hard work, optimism and good intentions, we fail to make progress on our goals. All of our efforts seem wasted. We lose hope in our abilities. We become demotivated and angry. In this negative mindset, we persist with less than enough vigour and enthusiasm, our efforts become half-baked and the result we crave continues to elude us.

If this happens, it’s easy for us to lose hope and want to give up, telling ourselves, maybe I’m not carved out for this after all.

I’ve been there. But for me, giving up wasn’t an option. So I learned to turn things around and see them from different angles. I learned that there are always other aspects we’ve not considered, other possibilities we’ve failed to see, a different way of thinking we’ve not allowed ourselves to explore.

If you’ve ever considered giving up on something you shouldn’t be given up on, then you might want to keep these five things in mind.

1. You’re still in control

When things are not turning out as expected, it’s easy to leave the reigns of control to circumstances, to feel as though you’re at the mercy of some unseen forces. But the truth is, there is no time that you’re not in control.

It’s really up to you. You can either allow your hopelessness and negativity to weigh you down and paralyze you from moving on or you can use the one shred of will power you have remaining and try just one more time.

2. It gets tougher when you’re on the brink of a breakthrough

Our inclination is to give up or at least to take it into consideration when things get unbearably tough. But that happens because we forget that the farther we go out of our comfort zone, the tougher it becomes and the closer we move towards our breakthroughs. My people would say by way of encouragement, that the haircut always becomes more painful when it reaches the forehead.

So why allow difficulty to break you when you can use it as a compass to guide you trough?

Nobody said it was going to get easier. Prepare yourself for the worst and re-evaluate just how much it is you’re willing to endure. A bit more persistence might be all you need to get there.

3. There’s always a different strategy

Sometimes our inability to make progress stems from devoting ourselves to the wrong strategies, which usually lead to failures or bad outcomes.

But because we’re trapped in thoughts that it stems from our own inadequacy, we fail to see it first hand. We tend to continue doing the same things over and over again, even though we’re only getting abysmal results. We forget that, even though we can control our own actions, we can not control most of the outcomes and circumstances that surrounds us.

Also read: What Does Failure Mean to You?

Sometimes, all we need to do for a result to change is for us to change the strategy.

So take a look at yours, what can you do differently? Ask someone who has accomplished something similar for guidance. If you never try something different, you might never get to know what really works.

4. Giving up is the biggest failure

Cliche as it is, you can’t deny the truth to it.

Also read: Training Your Brain to Beat Negativity & Have Success

There is no wasted effort on your path to success. Every failure is a worthy experience. Every obstacle you’ve overcome is a step forward. Why will you want to throw away everything you’ve learned and endured previously just because it got tougher? C’mon you’re not a coward. Tell yourself it’s too late to give up. Then get back on your feet and move on soldier. You’re making more progress than you can imagine.

5. You overestimate you own efforts

The emotional burden you carry most of the time usually weighs heavier than your real efforts. You usually spend so much of your time worrying and stressing over your unaccomplished goals that you start to feel you’re trying too hard when in reality, you’re hardly doing enough. This happens to me often. There are times when I feel like I’m about to breakdown and give up, only to realize after evaluating my progress that I’ve scarcely accomplished anything.

Worrying consumes energy, taking action consumes energy. Where are you spending your energy the most?

It’s always helpful to have a plan or road-map because it helps you to stay super focused on doing the right things. Accumulating negative emotions can’t help you, it only slows you down.

It takes a great portion of patience and persistence to achieve your dreams. But you don’t possess these qualities in abundance when you’re so eager to see results. Explains a lot, doesn’t it? So, before you give yourself the ‘that’s-it-i’m-done’ speech, remember these five points and then decide for yourself if it’s still wise for you to give up.