How to Pivot When Your Goals Feel Unattainable

“Don’t ask why people don’t use your start up. Ask why the people who do keep using it.”

-Eric Reiss

I heard this quote on NPR’s “How I Built This Podcast.” It was shared by Mike Krieger, one of the founders of Instagram. He was describing how before Instagram was Instagram, it was an app called Bourbon and they only had around 100 users. Rather than despairing over the traction they were NOT receiving, he remembered this quote which is one of the philosophies of Eric Reis, writer of ‘The Lean Start Up.’ Bourbon’s few users were into the photo taking aspects of the app so they decided to shift focus away from the location sharing function into the photo aspect and voila! Instagram was born. Obviously a few more things led to its massive growth, but its birth came as a result of this mindset shift. I thought this was such a powerful idea that we can all apply to every aspect of our personal and professional lives, start-up or not. Simply said: if a goal, plan or desire is consistently eluding you, could the goal simply be the wrong goal? Have you missed something else that is working that you should pivot to instead? What positive results or traction are we getting that could lead to a break through if pursued? How can you lean more on your strengths, and less on your shortcomings, to achieve what you want at work, dating, fitness or relationships?

Something to chew on 🌟