Why bother? Are you putting in effort for nothing?

Sometimes nothing seems to go right.
You run every day, do Cross Fit, eat healthily but you still can't complete a marathon.
You research, do character sketches, plot your novel, get it professionally edited but you still struggle to sell 100 copies of the book.
You spend money on marketing, get heaps of downloads when you offer your book for free but still fail to get any reviews.
You share what you have done with family and friends, they say good job, but they don't bother to read your novels or watch your videos and you know it's just empty meaningless praise.
(Not that I run or do Cross Fit or have any intention of running in a marathon but you get what I mean!)
You save money to travel to all the places on your bucket list but nobody is interested in hearing about your adventures.
Nobody cares.  They might say they do, but really they don't.
So why bother?
Why waste your time putting in effort when nobody gives a damn?
Why put in the effort when you never succeed.  Should we just not try?
How many times do you bend over backwards to make a relationship work, and you still end up getting stabbed in the back?
You never smoke, never drink in excess and still you get cancer.
You try and do the right thing over and over but nothing seems to work.
Everything is a constant struggle.  As if you are constantly running head first into a concrete wall.
If we are never meant to succeed, then should we even try?
Well, you have to ask yourself what constitutes success.  Is success getting recognition from others?  Is success some kind of financial reward?  Is success measured by the amount of followers or subscribers you have, the amount of views or downloads you get?  How do you measure your success?  Is success getting someone to love or like you?
Maybe we need to start doing things for ourselves and not doing it to please or impress others.
Leading a healthy lifestyle should be success enough without the marathon.
Completing a novel and getting it published should be enough of an achievement.
Learning skills to make a Youtube video should be a sign of success.
We need to start celebrating our achievements instead of rating them according to others' reactions to them.  Do things for yourself, set yourself goals and celebrate when you achieve them.  Don't base your success on what others think.  They don't know what you went through and have no appreciation for your journey.
We all live in our own bubble.  Sometimes our bubbles collide and become Venn Diagrams, but often they are just floating around oblivious to the bubbles near them.
People don't mean to not give a damn.  They are only concerned about their bubble.  They don't notice what is going on in yours.
If you are only writing a novel, running a marathon, making a Youtube video, propping up a relationship to please others, then you are doing it for the wrong reason.
You need to become selfish.  Do it to please you.  Do it because it makes you happy.  Do it because you enjoy being creative and learning new skills.  Don't give up, be resilient.  Bounce back.
Run in a half-marathon instead of a full marathon.  Nobody wants to read your novel, write another.  Read other books to work on your skills.  Nobody wants to watch your Youtube videos, continue perfecting your editing and filming skills and keep uploading new content.  Nobody wants to read your blog posts, so what.  Write them for yourself.  Get those words out of you.  Be resilient and bounce back.  Don't let others' apathy towards your efforts bring you down.
If selling a book was easy everybody would be doing it.  Nothing in life is easy and sometimes you don't see an immediate benefit for all the effort you put in.
Anyway, these are just some of my random thoughts on a miserable rainy day when I should be writing reports.

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Cindy Vine is a South African currently living in Norway.  She is the author of Not Telling, The Case of Billy B, Defective, CU@8, Hush Baby and The Freedom Club.  All her books are available on Amazon.com in both ebook and paperback format.  You can find out more about Cindy and her other books on www.cindyvine.com.  Should you wish to find out about some of the many countries she's visited, you can visit her travel blog www/cindyvinetravels.com.