General Patience in Progress

[joelr]

We often expect fast results, but meaningful progress usually takes much longer—sometimes two years, not two months. Whether it's writing a book, recovering from an injury, mastering a new skill, or yes, starting a new forum, the journey often feels slow and gradual.

• How do you stay motivated when progress feels invisible or slower than expected?
• What long-term goals have you been working on, and how do you maintain focus without getting discouraged by the pace?
• How can we, as a community, encourage each other to embrace the long game?

Focus on the routine, not the results.

 

[Nomad]

Many years ago, when I created a forum and opened for public posting, I though my forums would become very popular. It was crypto niche and crypto was becoming very popular. Crypto ads also had good CPC rate of $1.5 per click in tier one countries. So I think my forum would be popular and earn me a lot of money. Sadly it did not happen. It took almost two years just to reach 1000 members and 10 thousands posts.
Running a forum needs a lot of patience.

 

[Cedric]

Good topic. If you’re not satisfied with the progress, why don’t you invest more time and resources?

We often say it takes time, but what about you - as the admin - what have you invested during that time? The more you do, the quicker your community grows. Are you proactively promoting your community? Are you adding new content every day? Do you have fun activities and events regularly?

Maybe the slow pace isn’t the communities’ fault - but yours.

But maybe you’re satisfied with slower progress - and that’s perfectly okay too.

 

[Shortie]

One of the biggest mistakes many make is thinking that when they open a forum, it will blow up over night, over a few weeks or even a few months and that gives false hope.

Those who tend to have this way of looking at a new forum tend to end up failing and closing the forum because they are disappointed and feel like they are not successful because they expected too much too quickly.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I try to not get overwhelmed with the bigger picture and do small things here and there. I used to get really inpatient and get disappointed when I didn't see the results I wanted to see. Everything takes time and effort, owning a website is no different.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

With forums (or any sort of online gig), goal setting is extremely important.

But too many people are setting goals that are too big or not likely achievable. It's important to be realistic about goal setting.

It's okay to have a big goal but make sure you have plenty of smaller goals that will lead up to the success of a larger goal. Make sure you set goals that you can win at with some realistic effort.

I just restarted my admin forum. When I first had it years ago, it was huge. My goal is to get it big like that again but not to demand that achievement at the end of the year. I've set smaller goals to eventually work up to it. Something I can actually work on daily to be successful at.

If you do proper goal setting, you'll be able to stay motivated to keep going.