“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.”
Denis Waitley
Persistence is your ability to keep moving on no matter how tired you are, no matter what’s happening to you, and no matter how much you feel like walking away, you just keep moving forward.
I wonder how many people have committed to getting something done; they do the majority of the work but then because it’s taking so long to achieve any results they quit.
As a general rule, when you start working towards any significant goal, you are usually working towards something that’s way off in the future. No matter what you’re doing, there is no way that you will be bursting full of energy and dedication and motivation every single day that you pursue your goal, it’s impossible! There will be times that you’re feeling motivated, there will be times when you’re feeling yeeeurch, and you’ll probably spend most of your time somewhere in the middle.
Your motivation or your apathy levels are not what will produce results, the only way that you will achieve is by taking continual action. Even if your goal leaves you (if you’ll pardon the phrase) imbued with all the life, energy and vigour of an exceedingly wet fart, so long as you take action to do something every day then you will achieve your goal.
But in order to take action you have to be persistent, you have to be able to keep nudging or kicking yourself along because the point that you stop pushing yourself is the point where you bid a sad farewell to your goals.
On a personal level, because of my health issues it can be very difficult to keep pushing myself along, but I do it. There have been times when I’ve been on my daily walks that every step that I took was agony, but I wouldn’t compromise on the distance. Getting my writing in can be a nightmare, but when you have a publication date that keeps getting closer you’ll be surprised at just how you can push yourself.
I find that the easiest way to be persistent is not to think about it, just do it. Whilst self-analysis is a good thing, it can be take too far and you start to question everything that you do, and when you start to question everything you start to look at whether something is possible or impossible and that will constrain your potential and ability. I suppose that in some ways, analysis paralysis is a bit like strapping yourself into a strait jacket.
All you really need to know is what you want to achieve and how you’ll achieve it, and then go do it.
Regardless of how well you’ve planned everything, it can happen that nothing will go right for you and you need to be able to know when to say enough. It can be hard to walk away from something that you’ve committed so much of yourself too, but ultimately there’s no point in wasting your time and the sooner you can find a more suitable path the better it will be for you. When I was at school I really wanted to be a vet, I spent a lot of time helping out at a local vet practice but I just couldn’t get the grades, I even spent an extra year trying to make the grade but it didn’t happen, it was bitterly disappointing but life moves on and there are always more opportunities waiting to be found.
If you find that what you’re doing is not working then you need to work out if you are on the right path. You need to do a harsh but realistic appraisal of your situation, if you are not convinced that you can do a realistic appraisal then talk to someone else about your situation.
If you appraisal shows that you are following the wrong path, then find one that you are better suited to and change direction fast. If you are on the right path then look at where you might be going wrong and what you can do to improve your situation, and then do it.
Don’t forget that with each passing day, month and year you change and so do your goals. As you progress through life your priorities will change and what was important one year could be of no interest the next. As you move through life you will find new goals to aim for and in order to pursue those goals you might have to shelve some of your older ones. It could also be the case that you develop a new goal that so captures your imagination that everything else gets left by the wayside, a bit like me and this magazine, before I started it I had a far too impressive to do list of books to write, but once I started I got so caught up in it that I don’t have the time to spend on the rest of my writing.
Whilst I’m sure that you all agree that having goals is a good thing, it’s a bit of a nuisance when they become redundant. The solution to that is simple, instead of creating specific goals for yourself, for example you are going to sell x amount more or you’re going to get that promotion, instead set yourself broader goals that are based around your own development, you could make growth your goal, growth in life and at work, and when I think about it, your continual growth is the only goal that you need to focus on.
I realise that you’ll have work related tasks and goals, but why should you focus on just one personal goal? Your continual personal growth takes in everything, it covers your development as an individual, relationships, education, career, hobbies interests and everything else that I’ve not included.
When you focus on specific goals you tend to be so focused on them that it’s easy to forget that there is a lot more that you could be doing with yourself. If you broaden your focus to your own personal growth then you have the potential to keep growing and developing for as long as you are alive.
If you don’t focus on specific personal goals but just one all-encompassing one then you can create such a powerful goal, such a compelling vision that you will do everything in your power to be able to achieve it. By having a vision that is unlikely to change in any significant way you won’t have to lurch forward in life as you move from goal to goal, instead you will have consistency and continuity which will allow you to make the best use of your time.
As with anything if you take consistent action then you will achieve much more than if you are doing a bit of this and a bit of that.
I realise that it’s all very well my saying that you just have to stick at what you’re doing and then yaaay at some point in your future you will achieve your goals, but that doesn’t make it any easier. The future can be a point that is so distant that it has no meaning to your here and now.
It’s up to you to decide that you want to move your life forward; I can’t do it for you and neither can anyone else, the desire has to come from within you, and the only reason that you should take action on it is that you know that it’s the right thing for you to do.
If you’re not sure that this is something that you are ready to do then can I ask this question? Have you found a vision that is personal to you, one that will become the focus of your life and one that has the power to drive you forward?
If you answer yes then go for it. If you answered no then you still need to work out what you want from life, and before you do anything else I strongly suggest that you apply yourself to that question.
No matter how all-encompassing your vision is, make sure that you keep your mind open and flexible as you move forward. Keep pushing at the boundaries of your capabilities but no matter how tempting it is, beware of trying to be too unrealistic in your outlook. If you aim for something that is beyond you then you could end up wasting your precious time and losing confidence in your ability to succeed.
Start out with something that you know is achievable and as you gain more skills and experience then you can take it to the next level and beyond. By starting with something that you know that you can achieve you condition your mind to expect success, and the more it becomes accustomed to success the more it will accept that you are able to achieve.
You will have good times, bad times and times when you wonder just where’s the point of doing all of this? You have to take the rough with the smooth, that’s life and there is nothing that you can do about it. The only thing that you can really do is to watch out for those times that you start to question what you’re doing because they can sneak up on you all unawares, and unless you can stamp down hard on those moments the worm of doubt will have inserted itself into your mind, when that happens you will have a fight on your hands to keep moving forward.
When things are getting difficult it’s very easy to say no more, the problem is, once you walk away from something it’s a lot easier to do so again. If you walk away then a little bit of your mind will register that, and it will notice that life is a lot easier when you’re not pushing yourself and making your life a misery.
You are infinitely more capable than your mind allows you to believe and you really are capable of great things, so when the going gets tough, you have it in you to be able to grit your teeth and keep moving forward. It can be difficult to get moving, but once you’ve taken that first step then it will become easier.
No matter how talented and gifted you are, if you don’t have persistence then your talents are worthless. If you want to achieve anything then you have to be able to take consistent action no matter how bad things are. The easiest way to be persistent is to be persistent, don’t get yourself snarled up into analysis paralysis, just do what you have to do. At the time of typing I’m having fun with the tail end of a chest infection that can’t bear to leave me, and combined with all my other problems I think it fair to say that I’m a bit of a mess; I could give in but that wouldn’t get this magazine written, it wouldn’t finish of my adaptation of a Christmas Carol, and it wouldn’t get me walking the miles that I need to keep my carcass ticking over.
We all have a choice, we can push on or we can do nothing, I choose to push on. I might not get things done as quickly as I would like, but they get done and I know that at some point I will find the success that I seek.