The key to staying focused and making progress may be in moving forward even when you don’t feel like it. I’ve been told in the past, and I tend to agree, that we benefit the most from business ventures, workout sessions, meditations, and self discoveries that are carried out when we are not in the mood to do so.

For instance, I’m not in the mood to write an article right now, but I know that doing so will warm me up for the work ahead and ultimately contribute one more good piece to my overall network of content. If I were to move forward with today’s work without writing my daily article my performance would likely suffer.

I write an article first thing when I reach my desk each day. Maybe I post it here, or maybe at another of my blogs, or perhaps I’ll submit it to a directory.

Whether I feel like it or not I start each work day in this manner.

I try to put the same discipline on exercise sessions, returning emails and phone calls, and anything else that needs to be done. Doing these things even when I’m not in the mood helps me stay on course toward my goals of continued happiness and success.

Even when one escapes the 9 to 5 life, there is still some measure of discipline involved. And recognition of this fact is often what separates the hugely successful from the mediocre.

It’s interesting how so many recent self-development programs actually denounce positive thinking. In fact many of the speakers and authors I really like have taken the time in the past couple of years to downplay positive thinking and refer to it as if it’s “not enough”.

A popular approach seems to be: downplay positive thinking with an eye roll, then explain why these “new” ideas around the law of attraction are so much more in-depth. Interestingly enough the speaker will then provide an outline for positive thinking in a circular manner, attempting to represent it under some other name.

This is all bulls**t and I want my readers to be aware of it.

Let’s not get all caught up in names and labels. Positive thought, positive perspective, positive attitude, whatever you want to call it - good vibes, optimism, looking on the bright side, it’s all the same thing.

Please don’t let anyone with a book to sell convince you that positive thinking is somehow “not enough” or “not the same as blah blah blah”.

First of all: Thinking in verbal patterns is not the highest state of mind anyway. You can radiate positive mental energy without even forming mental dialogue or images.

Second: the law of attraction is not anything new! This power has been with humanity since the beginning, and has been referenced in many ancient texts.

Authors in various transformational niches have been using the exact term “law of attraction” since at least 1906, but the concept is thousands of years old. And at it’s core is the state of mind and projection of energy we sometimes refer to as positive thinking.

But here’s what’s really important: This is ALL experiential and cannot be fully transferred from one person to another in spoken or written words.

So it’s LUDICROUS to get all hung up on the terminology. And it’s somewhat dorky to spend a lot of time saying “Wait… no this is better than positive thinking and here’s why. Here’s why positive thinking is not enough and why this (so-called) new approach is so much more complete and blah blah blah”.

Don’t let the current superstars in the self-transformation and self-discovery arena lead you down the path of terminology and categorization. Just relax and stay - you guessed it - POSITIVE!

And don’t get me wrong. I love reading Joe Vitale, James Arthur Ray, Mike Dooley, and so many others.

But the fact is their messages are not brand new technology in most cases; furthermore classics like Power of Positive Thinking and Magic of Thinking Big, while perhaps not as sophisticated on some levels as the Attractor Factor, Harmonic Wealth, and others, are still very much on the mark in terms of being highly empowering philosophies.

It’s fun to get caught up in new ways of expressing old truths. And it’s certainly great marketing to promote yourself and your message as different and innovative. But it’s just silly to say things like “positive thinking doesn’t work” or “positive thinking isn’t enough”.

IT DOES AND IT IS! PERIOD!

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?