This is a different angle but one worth exploring. You are not obligated to finish a project or even stick with a business that you don’t resonate with.

Many people choose their goals based on what they feel they “should” do. And it’s not uncommon for an entrepreneur to make a bad choice or two when setting up their first business model, then feel obligated to ride these bad choices out even after realizing the current direction is a poor fit for them.

Making bad choices is part of the learning process. Sticking with poor decisions is a bizare phenomenon common in our society of obligatory values and non-existent personal power.

If you don’t feel great about the business you are in, get out. You might need some time to change direction, so get started.

Nobody should spend decades of their life working a business or profession they hate simply because their parents wanted this path for them. If your parents want you to be a doctor or solider and you aren’t feeling it, perhaps you should send them to bootcamp or medical school.

Your life is yours to live. You can find and follow your heart, or blow it and be miserable living out someone else’s purpose for you.

In addition to this obligatory values scenario, a lot of entrepreneurs will find out their choice of business model is a poor fit within the first year, but then stick with it because - after all - our society praises determination and looks down on “quitters”.

I ran a Web design company for almost two years. The money was great, but I found I hated the work after about the first year.

For a while thereafter I plodded along, being sick at my stomach each morning because I had a job I hated. And finally I came to my senses and found a new direction.

I was momentarily stuck in a place where I thought I had to keep moving forward. I didn’t want to be a quitter, did I?

But then I realized - hell yes I wanted to be a quitter! I hated Web development as a trade-time-for-money career and I wasn’t about to spend one more month working this business that made me sick!

Forget what you think society demands of you. And forget what your parents want you to be when you grow up. And certainly forget what you have told all your friends you are going to do with your business.

You are obligated only to your own well-being and fulfillment. Being miserable at work can be attained through any number of J-O-Bs - why go through the trouble of starting your own business to accomplish that?

Your inner world creates your outer world. What you think determines what happens to you and around you in life.

People can choose to accept this fact and thus take control of their destiny. Or they can choose to blow this off, mumble something about “new age hippie nonsense” and continue to suffer.

I’ve given up on trying to convince people of anything. If you want to suffer, that’s your right and I wish you the best on that journey.

On the other hand, if you’d like to empower yourself and become instantly happy here’s the key:

What you think, you are. Your thoughts become things, and your thought patterns build the world around you.

We could talk all day about in-depth specifics, and I’ll definitely devote future articles to this topic. But the simple, awesome truth is what we think is the core contributing factor to the events and circumstances we live out in our physical lives.

I have to think you intuitively know this. Still there are people who want to argue the point.

My favorite example is the person who angrily insists that our thoughts have no power and we are all in fact the playthings of an angry, childish God who likes to make us suffer as a way of “testing us”. This is a great storyline for a fantasy novel but a very poor explanation of life, in my opinion.

Our thoughts are raw power. They are the basis of the phenomenon we call life.

If we choose to think in terms of anger and self-pity, our life will be one of anger, frustration, and sorrow.

If we choose to think in terms of grattitude, joy, inspiration, and just plain fun, our life will be one of great happiness and excitement. I challenge any skeptic to put this to the test for the next 30 days and see for themselves.

And I invite those in the know, those who already live by this philosophy, to share their thoughts as well.

I call it conversational marketing. Others might lump it in with social media marketing, Web 2.0, etc.

It doesn’t matter what you call it, this fun little tactic is a great way to build name recognition, generate backlinks, and get quality organic traffic.

What I do is go to Ezine Articles, About.com, or just find some blogs related to a site I want to promote. And then I join the conversation by posting intelligent, valuable comments.

This tactic has been recommended by hundreds of other people. It was around long before the term “Web 2.0″ was ever dreamed up.

But like most things related to online marketing, the majority of people are doing it wrong. Most folks add some lame comment like “nice blog”, drop in their link, and leave it at that.

What I do differently and what you should do as well, is take the time to add a substantial comment. Add something of very real value, even if only entertainment. The idea is to post something good enough that folks will want to double check the name or click on over to my site, or both.

Ideally this tactic should be used on high profile Websites. I want people seeing my name often, and associating me with quality content. Over time people will begin to acknowledge me as an expert in a given area simply because they see my name over and over and I always have something worthwhile to say.

It takes a while to build momentum with this but it’s a very solid, very free method of long-term promotion to consider.