Ever heard of the saying “Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water?” When I first heard this expression, I was suitably horrified, what with throwing a baby out with anything. I was relieved to find out that it meant throwing something good (baby) out while trying to get rid of something bad (dirty bath water).
Which got me to think about something I see my clients doing all the time: throwing their Marketing Baby Out With The Bath water-abandoning their marketing efforts while deep in a phase called ‘The Pit Of Despair”.
The Steps
There are a couple of steps to this phenomenon.
1. First Step-The Exciting Start:  This is when you start off with great plans to change your business results by having a new roadmap (marketing plan) to connect to new prospects. It could be public speaking, networking, it could even be something as passive as blogging, doing videos or even just creating a free download document to engage more visitors to your website.
2. Second Step-Oh oh: Then you find out that it’s tougher than you thought it would be. It takes longer, it’s not as much fun, you get a whole lot of ‘no’s’ and then you get really really discouraged.
3. Third Step-Kill Me Now: At this point, you fall into what coach Angelique Rewers calls “The Pit Of despair”. Then guess what happens? You throw the plan (the baby) out the window  so you can get rid of the ugliness (the difficulties you encounter during the implementation) of the doing of the plan.
4. Last Step-Go Back To Old Ways: This would be abandoning the baby with the bath water and going back to doing things the way you were already doing them before. Which weren’t getting you what you wanted.
Instead, research shows that if you can keep on doing the plan and avoid Step #4, you will achieve a new high of excitement. This one will be built on perseverance, accomplishment and the demonstration of some results. It will be lower than the initial high of your Exciting Start but it will be more sustainable over the long haul.
So think carefully each time you abandon your plans or a new way of doing things before you get results and keep that baby in the bathtub and tolerate the bath water until you get so used to it that it no longer even bothers you!
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