Persistence – is this for you?
“Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles and the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.”
— Brian Tracy
Being persistent in today’s world is definitely the one big factor that sets truly successful people apart from the rest. The quality of perseverance and never giving up is the difference that makes a difference.
When we think back to early childhood – did you start to walk, fall down and then not pick yourself up again? How often as a child did you fall over, trip over, tumble down from somewhere – did you think, oh well won’t do that again? Or did you just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again? As children we are inquisitive and also persistant; did you ever ask your parents for something, get rejected, but try again, and then again, till they said ‘yes’?
So why is it then that as adults when something doesn’t work out the first time we often give up? I meet many people who say they tried this and that business and ‘it didn’t work’. What then are you prepared to do to make it work? How creative will you be in your thinking to get you to the next step?
Remember that when climbing a ladder it is best to go up one wrung at a time; and this is the same when you are working towards your next goal. Of course there will be obstacles in the way; if you didn’t find those then you probably just aren’t moving forwards at all!
The question is – how will you deal with your next ‘obstacle’?
You might try it from different angles, different approaches, you could go round, climb over, move it out of the way etc. Do you think that the rewards on the other side will be bigger? Do you think you will have learnt something new? Do you think you will have a sense of achievement? Do you think successful people are willing to do whatever it takes?
The only thing that will stand in your way is likely to be the ‘F’ word – yes ‘Fear’!
Sometimes we just have to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’!
(For help with overcoming fears please contact me direct).
