Persistence

 

Fortune Favors the Bold

 

by Christen Murphy Resmo

 Is there a problem in your life that could be beaten or overcome with persistence? Is there a dream in your heart that persistence would help you finally and fully realize? 

I invite you to consider that special time in your life when you accomplished something meaningful and valuable to you. When was that time — when you overcame all obstacles and made it through to the end, even if the odds were stacked against you? Isn’t it true that your sense of pride and exhilaration came only AFTER you achieved something that you didn’t always know you could?  

What caused you to persist? Dogged determination? Passion and love for your goal?  Was it sheer stubbornness to prove that you could indeed do it? Or were you simply too far along to turn back? Whatever it was, ultimately what was most important is that you did persist. Persistence is about consistent action and a willingness to get up everyday and honor your dreams and decisions. There is enormous power in that. And your own inner quality of persistence has already served you well, even if it’s been somewhat dormant lately. Your persistence has helped you weather the storms of disappointment, rejection and temporary set-backs such that you’ve picked yourself up, dusted yourself off and kept going forward in your life. So can you count on yourself to be persistent now? Of course you can. 

Persistence is the inner strength of character that allows one person to succeed while another doesn’t. One person “just about” starts a project and the persistent person starts it. One person “almost” gets the job done and the persistent person finishes the job. While one person sees a chance opportunity, the persistent person acts on it. The question is, “Which person do you want to be today?”   

Sir Edmund Hillary, famous mountaineer, has said, 

“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.”  

Let’s consider Sir Edmund Hillary for a moment. This beekeeper from Auckland, New Zealand was by many accounts an ordinary chap. Yet he earned world-renowned celebrity when in 1953 he became the first to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest point on the planet, and return home alive. What most people don’t know is that Hillary and his native guide, Tensing Norgay, did this after failing on two frustrating prior attempts. And in 1953, an undertaking such as Everest was phenomenal. The modern day technology and support that is readily available to climbers today was not accessible to these two men. Not even close. Hillary and Norgay were completely on their own as they moved into uncharted territory. There were no helicopters to fly them and their gear into base camp, for there was no such place. There was no extra oxygen stashed at strategic locations and no radios to call for help or rescue. In addition, the trek to the base of Everest alone took a substantial effort and was considered by most to be a near impossible feat in itself. It took several weeks for them to traverse across some of the world’s most remote terrain just to get to the foot of the mountain.  

Both Hillary and Norgay possessed an obvious attribute that carried them to the top of this extraordinary place. And that quality is Persistence. Without it, all their planning and conditioning would have meant NOT attaining Everest, a long sought after ambition of theirs. The proper planning combined with persistence and fierce determination enabled these men to scale the world’s tallest mountain on that legendary day. 

 Persistence is the same character trait that we all need to carry us to the top of our own personal mountain. We are each confronted with obstacles every day as we strive to accomplish something that really matters to us. And yet, most of us don’t give ourselves enough credit. We don’t automatically equate ourselves to people like Hillary, thinking he is unique or somehow different from us. Therefore, we diminish our own abilities and don’t see the truth about who we are and what we’re truly capable of. But you are no different. You can keep climbing to the top of your own personal mountains too if you choose. All it takes is just a little more willingness and motivation than the ordinary chap. 

Persisting through Delays and Setbacks

Have you ever noticed when the moment you commit yourself to a goal, the challenges seem to arise almost as quickly? And the bigger the goal, the bigger the challenges look to be too! It’s as though everything that stands between you and this goal is suddenly revealed and clamoring for your attention. Why is this so? Why do frustrating problems surface just when we start to actively pursue a goal? 

Sometimes you’re supposed to be delayed or taken off course because there are areas of your life that need your attention first. This means that your current delays and setback are not definitive signs that you should stop pursuing your passion or give up trying. You’re not really going backwards even though it might feel that way. Instead, this is your opportunity to clear out the old and bring in the new. This is your chance to make room in your life for real improvements. Yes, better things are in store for you; but in order for more of this good to unfold, you need to address the unhealthy habits or relationships that are standing in the way. Even those problems that don’t have any relation or connection to your specific goal — like clutter, a bad attitude or lack of support — can disrupt your life so much that it’s hard to focus on much else. So it’s time to tidy up!

You didn’t sign up for easy street when you committed yourself to your personal growth. It is not painless to live the big life you were born to live. The path to true personal power is a wonderful, magical and meaningful path, but it is NOT the easy road. Embrace and appreciate your inner struggles for they will prove to be your most helpful teachers.

The painful or aggravating parts of your life — the ones that are really in your face right now — are here to tell you something. Pay attention. What messages are trying to get through? If you recognize the issues, you can ultimately change them. If you’ve ever said, “Why is this happening to me?” Take heart. Perhaps it happened for your betterment and highest good. So rather than stay down or defeated, take this opportunity to recognize and clear away those things that are hampering your overall progress and happiness. Keep persisting toward your heart’s desires and adding the new while you continually release the baggage that’s weighing you down.

Success Comes After Many Failures

Successful people experience more failures than the average person because they’re always striving to accomplish more. Such people dare to live the life they dream of and they don’t let the upset of failure stand in the way of their dreams permanently. Neither should you.   Some successful people live on the leading edge of thought and innovation where the learning curve is steep; therefore, temporary failure is inevitable. My example of such as person is Thomas Edison who taught us how to look at failure in a new light. Edison told us that we should expect to fail many times in our lives and should invite failure as a necessary part of achieving our ultimate goal. When failing to create electricity after over 10,000 attempts, Edison was asked by a reporter how he felt about his failure. His reply was this, “I did not fail. I now know the 10,000 ways not to do it!” Thomas Edison wouldn’t be defeated because he knew he was at least 10,000 steps closer to his goal of creating the electric light bulb. Ordinary people do extraordinary things all of the time simply because they think there is a way and they get to work! They cure diseases, fly people to the moon, and figure out clever and innovative ways to improve the lives of us all. There are many people in the world that you’ve never heard of (and who will never be famous) who are making your life better right now because they’ve chosen to persist! They help to make your cars and roadways safer, your Internet run faster and your children smarter and healthier. Many of their successes have come after multiple disappointments but these people finally succeeded because they chose to move beyond their short-term failures.  

Persistence Pays  

Basketball marvel, Michael Jordan has said,   

“I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot…and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” 

Even when we’re told that mistakes are a part of being human, we don’t ever want to make such mistakes and come up short. But so what if we do? Perhaps we believe that making a mistake says something bad about ourselves. And yet, intellectually we know that both our mistakes and failures play an important role in our success.

Prosperous people tell us that their mistakes were necessary for their greatest success story to come true. It’s inevitable that you’ll make mistakes so be patient with yourself and allow your mistakes to be okay. You will only fail for good if you fail to learn from them. In fact, I encourage you to see your most recent mistake as quite possibly the best thing that has happened in the pursuit of your goal thus far. That might sound silly or counterproductive, but what if it were true? What if like Hillary, Jordan and Edison, you’re actually making progress in the long run? It doesn’t matter that you’re bumbling a little a long they way. It matters that you’re actively engaged in the goal versus sitting-out-safe on the sidelines looking in. Learn from your mistakes and failures and then get back in the game of life. Losers never win because they never really play. And winners lose all of the time and that is also why they win. 

What Stops Us from Persisting? 

Here are my theories… 

1.     We think successful people are different from us  

Yet success is not that elusive or reserved for ‘special’ people only. Special people only got that way because they choose to persist above the level of the ordinary. Success requires pretty much the same qualities from all of us. Persistence is one such quality. We are all confronted with mountains every day when we strive to accomplish our goals. And yet, like Sir Edmund Hillary, you can keep climbing too, to where the view get more and more spectacular with every step you take.  

2. There are times when quitting would be easier 

For me, training to become a long-distance runner in high school comes to mind. During those moments when I wanted to quit running because it felt too painful, I had to tell myself “Keep going. You can’t quit now, you’ve come too far and you’ve worked too hard!” Persistence alone has been the solution to many of our human endeavors throughout history and it could be the sole strength of character needed now to overcome your own personal trials. And your persistence will help you bust through your inner resistance to proceed when the going gets tough. 

3.     We confuse persistence with added stress 

Persisting after a goal doesn’t require you to continually strain yourself. That’s the beauty of persistence. As you persist, you know that you’ll reach your goal eventually. This means that you can rest when you need to. In fact, rest is essential. There is a natural cycle in all things. Think of the mighty oak tree that grows in spurts and then rests. It draws nourishment from deep within the earth and then takes its time to begin growing upward again. Like the oak tree, it’s important for you to regain your strength too. Periods of rest will help you to maintain energy and a healthy perspective. Nothing will squelch your motivation like being tired and mentally drained so give yourself whatever you need to sustain yourself. Only then will you be able to travel the distance.  

Pace Yourself 

Persistence doesn’t mean going at a breakneck speed necessarily; it just means that you don’t give up. You don’t have to exhaust yourself in the pursuit of your goal, which could defeat the purpose of having a joyful goal in the first place. So don’t confuse the quality of persistence with monumental, super-hero-type action. Rather, look at persistence as the ability to take a series of small steps consistently until you see the goal through to the end. You can be persistent and choose a good pace that works for you. I don’t recommend such a slow pace that nothing exciting is being generated or such a frantic pace that your activities become draining and joyless. Racing through life so that you can check things off your to-do list is not the point of persistence. Instead, progress forward with purpose and calm certainty. Be assured that you’re perseverance alone is enough to bring about desired results in the exact perfect timing.   

  Step One:   Be in Action Every Day  Most projects are fun and exciting in the beginning. But even with the best intentions it can be hard to keep going once the excitement wears off and the pursuit of your goal gets challenging. But you CAN get there. Never doubt this. The person who wishes hard for something won’t stand a chance against you, the person who takes action when the fun is at a lull and the real work begins. But, here’s the magic in it, being in action generates more fun and enthusiasm all over again.   Be in action every day. There is nothing especially glamorous about this approach but it’s the only one that has been proven to work time and time again. This is a growth process to be sure. And, when you finally reach your desired goal, you will have grown into it and then have what it takes to hold on to it. Beyond that, you’ll feel that special pride and satisfaction that is reserved only for those who earn it.