Getting Past Discouragement

If you want to know discouragement, try teaching your children at home!

Teaching math to my children was perhaps the second biggest source of discouragement for me (teaching reading was perhaps number one on the list). Teaching basic addition wasn't easy! The hardest part about teaching addition was explaining when to carry a number. And don't even get me started on teaching subtraction!

Due to discouragement, I failed to be consistent in teaching them. I would teach them math for a few days, then take a long break from teaching it. Guess what? Once we started on math again, they would pretty much forget what I've taught them. And I'll be thinking, "Are you freaking kidding me??? You forgot how to do this basic problem that quickly???"

But finally, I had to just get past the discouragement and be consistent with the math lessons. Soon enough, my kids started to "get it." My daughter in particular quickly progressed from basic math to doing long division and converting mixed fractions -- all before the fourth grade. My son, while behind his sister, started to progress from basic math to more advance math.

Now just think if I just let discouragement keep me down. My kids would still be struggling with math to this day. I always had trouble with math when I was a kid and I don't want my kids having the same trouble as I had with math. Determination won out, and I'm proud to give my kids math assignments that they could complete on their own without my help.

When committing to anything, the one thing you need to conquer is discouragement. You will be discouraged several times before you start seeing positive progress. As long as you could get past the discouragement obstacles, you will start seeing favorable results.

Some of you know that my wife and I are big-time gardeners. But starting out was FULL of discouragement. Years ago, I started growing cantaloupe plants, but they died before producing fruit. I grew a pepper plant and it grew a pepper! Then it got eaten by what I think was a horned worm. We bought a tomato plant from the farmer's market that had tomatoes on it -- but the tomatoes started rotting out.

Then we purchased a vertical gardening tower and we grew these HUGE, beautiful squash plants -- and they got sick. I had to pull them out.

Trying again, we purchased another vertical gardening tower, and this time, after all the failed experiences we had, we started seeing good results. We started growing lots of food and even gave some food away! Finally, we started seeing good results!

When tempted to give up because of discouragement, don't do it. You never know what's on the other side if you keep pressing on!

I think about people who want to give up a bad habit. They stopped cold turkey for a few days and feel great -- until they got weak and gave in to their habits. Well, they try again, giving up cold turkey. They succeed for a few days, but then they fall back to their old habits.

After many of these failures, they decide to give up trying altogether. They think they'll be doomed to suffer from those bad habits. But they fail to understand that success comes after many discouraging road blocks. If you fail and give up, then you'd never know what you could have accomplished. But if you get past the discouragements and keep pressing on, then you could see the gold at the end of the rainbow.

How many things could you have accomplished had you not gotten discouraged? How far could you have traveled? How much weight could you have lost? How many bad habits could you have broken? Discouragement is there to remind you WHAT IS, instead of showing you what COULD BE. That is, discouragement tells you that you've failed, but it doesn't tell you what could happen if you keep trying.

When you commit to something, STICK TO IT if you truly see the potential in whatever it is you're committing to. Whether it's a business plan or a diet plan, if you see the potential, then stick with it. If you get discouraged along the way, just shake it off and keep going. You'll be discouraged before you be encouraged. Even if you get encouraged first, the encouragement won't last. The discouragement moments will come and you'd be faced with giving up or pressing on.

Whatever you commit to, give it time to show its true potential. Don't give up right away. Stick around. If you hang in there, you just might be pleasantly surprised at the end.