It’s natural to want whatever you do to take off like wildfire. When I have a book published, I want to sell a million copies immediately. People complain about how they began a blog and don’t have huge numbers reading it. I just met another person about to turn 40 years old who doesn’t have a real career because he felt too good to take an entry level position—ever—and wanted to start at a company with a high position. He got little experience over the years since he was so anxious to succeed big that he never took the lower level jobs he was offered.

It’s all too common that when you want to start at the top, you end up getting nowhere fast.

I see this a lot in musicians I work with as a music consultant. They’ve just released a CD, think it’s the best thing ever, yet it ONLY sold 500 copies so far. They lament about why they don’t sell faster. While sometimes people get a very lucky break and skip some steps, most people must get to their goals one baby step at a time. I remember when someone big in the music industry told me that he thinks musicians need to understand that you can’t sell a million CDs until after you sell 500,000. And you won’t get to any number until you sell the first one, and then the next group.

Success usually comes in increments. If you focus positive energy on achieving the first step in your goal, you have a better chance of reaching it. Then you can focus on the next increment.

I would be nice to just jump to the top level of your goals but that doesn’t usual happen. If your main focus is on just that top level, it’s easier to get discouraged. When you haven’t been in a job long, you need to prove yourself before getting the first promotion. Then you have to prove yourself in that position before going higher. If you start a blog, you need to get the first readers to sign up for it. If you focus on writing well for them, more will come.

My Start & Run Your Own Record Label book has sold over 100,000 copies but that took years. I’m not at all negative about how long it took. A majority of books don’t ever sell 10,000. When I began this blog in fall 2007, I don’t know if anyone read it. But I wrote as if a million people did. Slowly as people discovered it, they told friends and the word spread. Now people write to say they began reading all the old posts having discovered the blog recently. So while few people read my earlier posts when I wrote them, many have read them since.

Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

When you take one baby step at a time, you feel progress. When you lament about not being at your end goal yet, you get discouraged and may give up before you take all the steps needed. Take the first step and then the second and third. Each bit of progress leads to the next step. It may not be instant success but what matters is it gets you where you want to go. Appreciate the success in each small step instead of getting discouraged and not taking any steps at all. Every book I sell is another book closer to the best-seller I intend to have. Enjoy the success that baby steps can bring!

Take the 31 Days of Self-Love challenge and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways for free at http://howdoiloveme.com. And you can post your loving acts HERE to reinforce your intention to love yourself. Read my 31 Days of Self-Love Posts HERE.

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