The Benefits of Persistence - Article

networkingmatters · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:01 pm

How have the most successful people reached their success? Is it because they have more fortunate circumstances than others, such as a wealthy family, they are just lucky, maybe they have above average intelligence, or they were just in the right place at the right time? It is no doubt that any of these things can help, but the fact remains that true success can not come form any of these such sources alone.

So where does true success come from? If not from external sources then it must come from inside. Yes our success starts within ourselves and how we think and feel. In fact our level of success in any area of life is directly affected by our level of persistence. One dictionary definition of the quality of persisting reads: the quality of continuing steadily despite problems or difficulties. This is one very important quality that human beings need to possess in order to live a productive and satisfying life, it is also the quality that will pave our road to success.

When is comes to our goals and dreams and anything we want to accomplish in our lives our persistence will be the key to whether we will realise our visions and desires or not. As we develop our persistence, our inner character will become strengthened. Soon what we are thinking and feeling on the inside will be reflected in our lives, our own successes will become a visible reality to ourselves and others.

Lets set out some of the hallmarks of a persistent person. Lets see exactly how a persistent mindset can benefit a person. As we consider how such a person thinks, feels, and acts, reflect on your own self and determine how closely you are measuring up, take note of areas where you are weaker so you will be able to make a conscious effort to work on and improve them.

People who keep a persistent frame of mind are able to keep going when others give up. Rather than view obstacles as dead ends they view them simply as challenges that need to be worked around.

It is the persistent person who isn’t afraid of failure or making mistakes, and when failure and mistakes happen they are viewed as part of the learning process, not as a negative experience that signals defeat.

A persistent person has a strong sense of will, once they have made up their minds to succeed they are determined to keep going toward their goals no matter what. There is no such thing as taking no for an answer

They seek out positive thoughts and create a positive belief system for themselves. Negativity has no place in their thinking. They are dedicated and committed to the things, people, causes, and goals that they value, because they have that “never say die” spirit that keeps them going under any circumstances.

They have a stick to it attitude realising that success and anything worth while requires work, dedication and time, they stay with the course until the end realising that success is a process, often a slow and bumpy road.

Once we know what we want out of life and have determine how much success we deserve then the next step is to set out our plan of action to get us to where we want to be. We do that thought the use of goals.

All to often we tend to sell ourselves short, thinking that we really can’t accomplish great things. But this is just a mindset, whatever it is that we believe this is what we will become. If you believe you can be more, accomplish more, deserve more then you can, and will, and so to the opposite is true if we believe we can’t then we won’t. Thomas Edison was a man who lived and breathed persistence though out his entire life. One of my favourite Edison quotes is “If we all did the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

What if we could renew the persistent nature that each one of us started out with. As little babies we never gave a second thought to whether or not it would be worth all the time, work and failures (falling down) that we would have to go through in order to reach out ultimate goal of walking. I have never heard of anyone still crawling around as an adult because it was taking too long to reach their goal or, they fell too many times, as an infant so decided they should just give up trying. The fact is that each one of us started life out with a huge amount of persistence. If this quality could get you to walk as a baby, just think of what you can accomplish now by using persistence.

Take some time today to reflect on what your thought patterns are, they are affecting your feelings, and in turn your feelings are impacting your actions. Write down on paper what you would ideally like to be thinking feeling and doing, then get excited and enthusiastic about your life and all that you want to do. Once you add a persistent mindset to whatever you decide you want to accomplish then nothing will ever stand in your way. Whatever you choose to believe you will achieve.