No One Cares, Now What?

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Do you remember the excitement you had the first day you discovered what your dreams are? It was pure joy, you wanted to scream it from the roof tops, I'm going to………

After that initial excitement wore off it was time to get to work, so you did the smart thing and did the research on what it would take. When you started to see what would all be involved, you got a little discouraged, this wasn't going to be some easy tasks, it didn't matter though, you were determined to live your dreams.

So you worked hard and made sacrifices to get to your dreams and couldn't wait to release your dream to the world. You couldn't wait to quit that job that you really didn't like and live everyday working on something you truly believed in.

I remember when I first discovered Dan Miller and read his books, I was pumped and I knew what he was saying was the truth. I believed that I could "find or create work that I loved", I just had to figure out what that was. I thought and prayed long and hard and thought my calling was to be an event planner, so I had an opportunity right away to put this to the test. My sister was getting married and she asked me to plan the wedding, I learned pretty fast that this wasn't my true passion or what I was called to do.

It was chaos and I was at the head of it, everyone knew this was my first time but dealing with everything involved in event planning made me quickly realize that this was the job for someone else. In case you're wondering, she hired someone else and the wedding turned out better with out me planning it!

So it was back to the drawing board, and I prayed longer and harder and believed the Lord was leading me to my true calling. Through some different circumstances with work I needed to vent and the best way I usually vented was writing. I had always loved to write when I was younger but had never dreamed of doing it when I got older. So I started a small blog about work and the things that were happening.

As I wrote the blog, two amazing things started to happen, a few people said they liked it and the writing just seemed to flow. I realized that I had a lot to say and that maybe I could put it in a book……

To make a long story short I had been reading the success stories of people like John Locke and Amanda Hocking and their success with self publishing, so I decided to see if I had a book in me. I still remember how excited I was when I first started writing and as I neared the end of the book I started lining things up. I found an amazing editor and ebook formatter. I found an awesome graphic designer (he designed this site and all my covers, email him at f@ffffff.co ) and I had all the basics set. All I needed to do was release the book to the world.

I set a release date and promoted it every where on the face of the world (not literally but pretty close) and was ready to see the sales and ready to give my notice at my job. I was convinced that I did everything right and would see some awesome return for my money, so the release date of August 12 came and the book was officially out to the world. Can you guess what happened?

The first day the book was out, I promoted it all day and felt "good", I would check the sales every 10 minutes but didn't see any, I thought it took three days to get results back from Amazon. After about a week there wasn't a single sale, a big fat zero! I was already tired and discouraged from the journey to get to this point but this put me over the edge! I worked so hard to write and put out a professional book that the "average" worker could use but no one cared!

Going through this really thought me a few lessons about dealing with disappointment:

Things aren't always going to go as you want them to. This should be obvious to us but it's seems to elude us at that moment. I wanted to sell 10,000 copies that first day and quit the next day, it didn't and there's a reason for that. I'm a Christian and I believe the Lord definitely has a plan, it may not be the plan we want but it's the plan that we need (even if it takes us a while to realize). Be prepared if things don't go as planned, don't let it discourage you into quitting. You can't quit!
When it seems like no one is listening, practice. I was so passionate about that first blog and I did get good response but not a lot of people. I was mad everyday when I looked at the stats but I started to see that writing for no one as time to practice and get better with my writing. When you are releasing your dreams to the world and it seems like no one even cares about it, get better at it, practice until you become the best. If you have a quality product people will eventually see it and respond to it, you might have to rework your marketing but it all starts with great quality or great content. So practice and become the best, don't worry about whose listening or who cares.
Don't give into doubt! Doubt will be one of your biggest enemies when it seems like no one cares or you failed, don't listen to doubt. It's hard enough when you are following your dreams, doubt makes it 100 times harder and doesn't go away. Doubt wants you to fail and give up but if you have prayed to the Lord and have peace about what he wants for your life, then you have to ignore doubt and push forward, you just have to!
Rework your plan but don't give up! In my case I did a lot of good things and was convinced from the Lord of the path that I am on, I just had to look at what wasn't working and rework my strategy. I was a little naive and impatient, sometimes it just takes time, we have to be patient! So when it seems like a big flop, do a little post game analysis and see what you could do better, if you are releasing a book or a product, rework your marketing. You can make it work, it will just take some more hard work, determination and creating a new game plan. It all starts with prayer and peace from the Lord, so pray! Please, please don't give up, life is too short to be miserable from a unfulfilling life, don't give up! This year has to be different, this has to be the year of following your dreams and passions, too many years have passed where we have given up, not this year!

So where are you at? Have you figured out what your dreams are? Have you started the process? Have you tried and no one cares?

If you haven't figured out your dreams, then pray and listen, this will be your hardest part of the journey.
If you have already started, examine your plan, make it the best it can be, but be prepared if things don't go your way
If you have released your dream to the world and no one is listening, be patient and pray. Don't give up, go back to the drawing board and rework your plan. You can do this, I have complete confidence in you!

Where are you at in the process? Any advice from your experience? Your chance to help is in the comments: