One of the hardest things in life is to know when to keep going and when to move on.
On the one hand, perseverance and grit are key to achieving success in any field.
Anyone who masters their craft will face moments of doubt and somehow find the inner resolve to keep going.
This post originally appeared on the blog ofJames Clear.
On the other hand, telling someone to never give up is terrible advice.
Successful people give up all the time.
If something is down, smart people dont repeat it endlessly.
As the saying goes, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Life requires both strategies.
Sometimes you better display unwavering confidence and double down on your efforts.
Sometimes you better abandon the things that arent working and try something new.
The key question is: how do you know when to give up and when to stick with it?
One way to answer this question is to use a framework I call the Three Stages of Failure.
A Failure of Tactics is a failure to execute on a good plan and a clear vision.
Stage 2 is a Failure of Strategy.These are WHAT mistakes.
They occur when you follow a strategy that fails to deliver the results you want.
Stage 3 is a Failure of Vision.These are WHY mistakes.
Its not perfect, but I hope you find it to be useful.
Stage 1: A Failure of Tactics
Sam Carpenter became a small business owner in 1984.
I was a single parent of two kids, believe it or not.
I was very sick.
I was on all kinds of antidepressants and so forth…
I was going to miss a payroll and lose my entire company.
It was a horrible time.
One night, just before he was about to miss payroll, Carpenter had a realization.
His business was struggling because it completely lacked the systems it needed to achieve optimal performance.
He immediately began writing down every process within the business.
For instance, he said.
We have a nine-step procedure for answering the phone at the front desk.
Over the next two years, Carpenter recorded and revised every process in the company.
How to make a sales presentation.
How to deposit a check.
How to pay client invoices.
How to process payroll.
Carpenters workweek rapidly decreased from 100 hours per week to less than 10 hours per week.
Today, Centratel has grown to nearly 60 employees and recently celebrated its 30th year in business.
Carpenter now works just two hours per week.
Fixing a Failure of Tactics
A Failure of Tactics is a HOW problem.
There are three primary ways to fix Failures of Tactics.
Review and adjust your tactics.
Record your process.McDonalds has more than 35,000 locations worldwide.
Why can they plug-and-play new employees while still delivering a consistent product?
Because they have killer systems in place for every process.
Measure your outcomes.If something is important to you,measure it.
If youre an entrepreneur,measure how many sales calls you make each day.
If youre a writer,measure how frequently you publish a new article.
If youre a weightlifter,measure how often you train.
If you never measure your results, how will you know which tactics are working?
Review and adjust your tactics.The fatiguing thing about Stage 1 failures is that they never stop.
Tactics that used to work will become obsolete.
Tactics that were a bad idea previously might be a good idea now.
you gotta be constantly reviewing and improving how you do your work.
Successful people routinely give up on tactics that dont move their strategy and vision forward.
Fixing a Failure of Tactics is not a one time job, it is a lifestyle.
Stage 2: A Failure of Strategy
It was March of 1999.
The idea was to create something that could compete with eBay.
People from around the company were pulled off their projects.
The entire Auctions site, with all the features of eBay and more, was built from scratch.
It was designed, architected, developed, tested, and launched in under three months.
Amazon Auctions was a spectacular failure.
Just six months after launch, management realized the project was going nowhere.
In September 1999, they scrambled to release a new offering called Amazon zShops.
Again, Amazon swung and missed.
Neither Amazon Auctions nor Amazon zShops are running today.
Undaunted, Amazon tried yet again to create a platform for third-party sellers.
For example, a small bookstore could list their used textbooks directly alongside new ones from Amazon.
Marketplace was a runaway success.
In 2015, Amazon Marketplace accounted for nearly 50 percent of the $107 billion in sales on Amazon.com.
Fixing a Failure of Strategy
A Failure of Strategy is a WHAT problem.
By 1999, Amazon had a clear vision to be earths most customer centric company.
Thewhyandhowwere handled, but thewhatwas unknown.
There are three primary ways to fix Failures of Strategy.
All of the planning and research and design is just pretext.
I lovePaul Grahams takeon this: You havent really started working on [your idea] till youve launched.
Because of this, it is critical to launch strategies quickly.
Note the timeline Amazon operated on: Amazon Auctions was released in March 1999.
Amazon zShops was released in September 1999.
Amazon Marketplace was released in November 2000.
Three huge attempts within 20 months.
Additionally, doing things cheaply serves another crucial purpose.
It reduces your attachment to a particular idea.
The more energy you put into something, the more ownership you feel toward it.
Revise it rapidly.Strategies are meant to be revised and adjusted.
Starbucks sold coffee supplies and espresso machines for over a decade before opening their own stores.
Nintendo made playing cards and vacuum cleaners before it stole the hearts of video game lovers everywhere.
Too many entrepreneurs think if their first business idea is a failure, they arent cut out for it.
Too many artists assume that if their early work doesnt get praised, they dont have the skill required.
Too many people believe if their first two or three relationships are bad, they will never find love.
Imagine if the forces of nature worked that way.
What if Mother Nature only gave herself one shot at creating life?
Wed all just be single-celled organisms.
Thankfully, thats not how evolution works.
It is not the natural course of things to figure it all out on the first try.
Changing your strategy is normal.
It is literally the way the world works.
You have tostay on the bus.
Stage 3: A Failure of Vision
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Massachusetts in 1803.
Like his father, Emerson attended Harvard and became an ordained pastor.
That is reason enough why I should abandon it.
Emerson resigned from the church in 1832 and spent the following year traveling throughout Europe.
Fixing a Failure of Vision
A Failure of Vision is a WHY problem.
There are three primary ways to fix Failures of Vision.
Take stock of your life.
Take stock of your life.People rarely take the time to think critically about their vision and values.
Many people prefer to go-with-the-flow and take life as it comes.
In theory, thats just fine.
Because of this, you oughta take stock of your life.
What do you want to accomplish?
How do you want to spend your days?
It is not someone elses job to figure out the vision for your life.
That can only be done by you.
My suggestion is to start byexploring your core values.
Then, review your recent experiences by writing anAnnual Reviewor doing anIntegrity Report.
Determine your non-negotiable.Your non-negotiable is the one thing you are not willing to budge on, no matter what.
One common mistake is to make the non-negotiable your strategy, when it should be your vision.
Its very easy to get fixated on your idea.
But if youre going to get obsessed with something, get obsessed with your vision, not your idea.
Be firm on the vision, not on this particular version of your idea.
Jeff Bezos has said, We are stubborn on vision.
We are flexible on details.
If your non-negotiable is to be a successful entrepreneur, then there are many ways to achieve that vision.
Once you are confident in your vision, it is rare to lose it in one fell swoop.
There are so few mistakes that lead to the complete annihilation of a dream.
More likely, you failed at a strategy level and felt demoralized.
This crippled your enthusiasm and you gave up not because you should, but because you felt like it.
Your emotions caused you to turn a Stage 1 or Stage 2 failure into a Stage 3 failure.
Most of the mistakes that people assume are Failures of Vision are actually Failures of Strategy.
Dont develop a sense of ownership over the wrong thing.
There are nearly infinite ways to achieve your vision if you are willing to be flexible on the details.
These are WHO mistakes.
They occur when society fails to provide equal opportunity for all people.
However, I chose not to focus on them here because Failures of Opportunity are difficult to influence.
One thing that may not be apparent at first glance is how the different stages can impact one another.
Imagine how Sam Carpenter felt when he was working 100 hours per week.
Sometimes you need a few tactics to create enough whitespace to figure out your strategy or vision.
No, these topics arent going to create a world-changing vision by themselves.
But they might clear enough space in your calendar for you to dream up a world-changing vision.
In other words, you might not be walking the wrong path after all.
Its just that there is so much dust swirling around you that you cant see the path.
Thousands of people have attended his online seminars onHabits,Willpower, andProcrastination.
Top image bvMichele Paccione(Shutterstock).
