No matter what you want to achieve in life, if you want to achieve extraordinary success, you need to develop persistence. Without persistence, you will not be able to achieve your goals and achieve the success you desire.
Only those who are persistent and willing to study things deeply achieve masterful work. - Paulo Coelho
Are you persistent enough to go after what you want until you get it?
Perseverance is one of the most important and common characteristics shared by all successful people.
So if you want to achieve your goals, make your dreams come true, and live the successful life you dream of, learn to develop persistence.
Here are some ways to develop your persistence.
Understand your purpose
Why do you do what you do? Why do you want to achieve your goals? Why do you want to achieve your dream?
Your goal speaks for itself. When you have a good reason why you do what you do, you will stick to it no matter what.
However, when your goal is weak, you will quickly give up when you encounter difficulties along the way.
Think about it, if someone put a gun to your head and forced you to write a book, how would you feel?
You will never do a job with all your heart because you were forced to do it from the very beginning. You will feel stressed and anxious.
What if you volunteered to write a book? No one is forcing you, but you do it because you love writing and dream of becoming a great writer someday?
You will feel different. Imagine that every day you work and get closer to your dream, and you love it. You do it because you want to, not because you need to.
That makes all the difference! This is what happens when there is a strong and emotional purpose behind what you do.
So, understand your purpose. Know why you do what you do.
If you want to develop persistence and stick to your plan, you must have a strong, emotional and inspiring goal to support you.
What is persistence?
From a psychological point of view, perseverance is a personal quality that consists of the ability to purposefully solve a given task, overcoming any internal and external obstacles. A persistent person not only works hard to achieve a goal, but also learns from his mistakes and failures, instead of getting upset and wasting time on unproductive worries.
One of the main abilities of a persistent person is the ability to prioritize. He prefers to receive valuable rewards in the future and does not sacrifice prospects for immediate pleasures.
Perseverance is one of the most important qualities needed to achieve success in life. In this regard, it surpasses any innate talents and abilities. Many people are naturally endowed with absolute pitch, “golden” hands, photographic memory and other talents, but only those who have perseverance can realize them.
This trait consists of the following qualities:
- Patience. A persistent person knows that to achieve big goals, you have to work for a very long time, often without getting any intermediate results.
- Believe in yourself. If a person doubts his success, it is much more difficult for him to work productively, so confidence in himself and his abilities is very important.
- Determination. It is important to understand what goal you are working towards and choose exactly those actions that contribute to the most effective achievement of this goal.
- Strength of will. It is necessary so that a person does not lose determination when faced with difficulties.
- Mindfulness. At every moment of time, a persistent person clearly understands what task he is currently facing.
- Calm. Anxiety interferes with productive activities, so it is very important to work calmly and measuredly, knowing that every step brings you closer to your goal.
- Reasonableness. This ability is important for the ability to set priorities. When choosing what to do, a person should be guided by logic and common sense, and not by immediate desires.
- Perseverance. Essentially, this is the ability to perceive failures, mistakes and “bumps” as mandatory steps on the path to success.
- Responsibility. Some people who are not usually persistent can be incredibly persistent in situations where they feel responsible to others.
- Hard work. Love of work and the ability to work conscientiously also influence the ability to achieve your goals.
Persistence depends on the character and temperament of a person, as well as on his upbringing. If parents show their child a worthy example and explain to him how important this character trait is when solving various problems, his chances of growing up as a persistent person increase significantly.
Rethink your meaning
Besides the goal, the meaning you associate with your goal will also affect your level of persistence.
Here's an example. If you are in sales and want to double your sales, but deep down you believe that sales people are bad people who lie, then trust me, you will not do anything good in sales.
The value you place on your goals or work will greatly impact your productivity and persistence.
People leave because they don't find what they do meaningful. Persistent people are people who find what they do meaningful. And so they keep working at it and persist even when things get tough.
Remember the story of the three masons? One mason looks at his work as laying bricks, another looks at it as building a wall, and the last mason looks at his work as building a beautiful house.
If you are a bricklayer and look at your job as simply laying bricks, you will quit when another opportunity comes along. You will be distracted by other “shiny objects” and quickly give up on your work.
But when you look at your work as something meaningful, you will persist until you get it done.
The same goes for your goals and everything you want to achieve in life. You need to associate what you want with a strong meaning.
Without inspirational meaning, you will quit and give up. But when you discover that what you are doing or your goal is meaningful, you will persist until you achieve it.
How to develop perseverance and perseverance
Every person wants to be significant, realize their potential, choose their own path and achieve every goal they set. However, such achievements are unlikely for a weak-willed person who bends at the slightest breeze. Therefore, the sooner a person studies the question of how to develop perseverance and perseverance, the faster and easier he will improve these qualities.
First, you have to decide why a person needs these character traits, analyze his life, potential and desired results. Find out what you are not happy with, what you would like to change, and what you have the ability to do, but lack the personal qualities. Clearly imagine how life will change with perseverance, perseverance, responsibility and discipline. If people are satisfied with everything in life and are not inspired by change and the possibility of a better destiny, they are unlikely to want to strain and change themselves.
You need to set goals that give you goosebumps and quicken your heartbeat, provided that your desires do not go beyond reality. Once a goal has been set, you can think about ways to achieve it. It would be correct to break a large goal into small ones, that is, divide a long path into small segments, and think through how to complete each of them. It is important to consider that it is unlikely that you will be able to do everything perfectly. Failures, obstacles and difficulties cannot be avoided, but let them only strengthen character and strengthen the desire to follow your dreams.
10 times your commitment
So, do you want to develop your persistence? Then only 10 times your obligations.
The more dedicated you are, the less likely you are to quit and give up. But how can you increase your commitment?
Burn the ships. Give yourself no choice but to succeed. Make no excuses and the only way is to persist and persist until you succeed.
You can create a commitment mechanism or publicly state your commitment to hold yourself accountable.
For example, find an accountability partner and update them on your progress every week. Commit to your partner that you will send them a progress report on your goal by the end of each week.
This is one of the many ways to increase your commitment and become more persistent.
Another powerful method is to use a commitment device - a way to lock yourself into a desired action/behavior so that you follow through with it.
Here are some examples of how the commitment device works:
- When you reach your goal, you'll be able to enjoy an hour of the movie, but if you don't, you'll have to donate $20 to charity.
- To get more exercise: Choose a place to live that gets you walking/biking more.
- To save more: Use a piggy bank that you can't open until you break it.
- For larger investments: Set up an automatic investment account in which a portion of your salary will be invested on autopilot.
- To watch less TV: Sell the TV or put away the remote control and lock it in a drawer.
You get the idea. The more dedicated you are, the more persistent you will be.
Success and competition
Whether we like it or not, the modern world is built on competition. Today everyone is forced to compete with each other: politicians, businessmen, freelancers, bloggers and even people of creative professions. And if success for us is even slightly related to popularity in society, we will also have to fight “for our place in the sun.”
Alas, it is competition that often becomes one of the most serious difficulties on the path to success. Because of it, we have to multiply our efforts many times to get at least some result.
For example, it is no longer enough for a modern company to simply produce useful products. Today, its leaders must constantly think about “competitive advantages” and “unique selling propositions”, about marketing and advertising, about SMM and SEO, about promotions, competitions, sales and all kinds of loyalty programs.
And all this is needed in order to attract a buyer who is already being “hunted” by dozens of similar companies.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the winner of the competition gets the lion's share of success (profits or popularity), while the losers get only the crumbs from their table.
But there is another very, very important type of competition in this world: endurance competition. Whatever field of activity we take, there will be a continuous elimination of those who, for some reason, were forced to retreat.
If we collect all sites and blogs on one topic using special services, we can end up with a list of hundreds of addresses. But if we look at these resources, we will find that many of them have long been abandoned and have not been updated for years.
Someone abandoned their site for objective reasons, someone couldn’t cope with the difficulties, and someone didn’t get quick results and lost interest in their work.
As a result, all the traffic on this topic today is collected by those 5–10 sites that were able to “stay alive.”
And here’s where another benefit of persistence comes into play:
The longer we can “hold out,” the fewer competitors we have.
Why is it good?
Firstly, with each competitor who drops out, the “intensity of the struggle” subsides, at least a little, and it is easier for us to achieve results.
Secondly, when someone drops out, the results they receive (customers, audience, subscribers) are inevitably distributed over time among those who “remained alive.” Schematically, this can be depicted something like this:
Ten “players” of equal strength enter into a competition for resources. As “players” drop out, resources are distributed among the remaining participants
But for this to happen, you need to be persistent and “hold out” longer than others.
Double the fun
Have you ever wondered why some people are invited to play golf and can wake up at 5 am and drive an hour to the golf course?
But when it comes to something they don't like, like writing a report, will they tell you that they feel sleepy, sluggish and have no motivation to do it?
The reason is that they don't want to do it. For them, golf is fun, but writing a report is boring.
So find a way to make what you do fun. When you like something, you will persist in it.
Think about playing computer games. People are willing to spend hours playing a game because it's fun.
The path to success is a marathon
The brain is the most energy-consuming human organ. He doesn't like to strain himself unnecessarily and really likes simple solutions.
Therefore, it is not at all surprising that some people perceive achieving success as a one-time act. Consciously or unconsciously, they are guided by something like this “formula”:
For example:
- Joined a fitness club = Got an athletic body
- Opened a store = Became successful entrepreneurs
- Created an account on LinguaLeo = Learned English
- Started playing guitar = Became famous guitarists
When it comes to simple tasks and short-term goals, this formula really works. To wash the dishes, refuel the car or write an article, we only need to make a small “jump” and we will immediately get the result.
But when it comes to the goals that are associated with the word “success,” this formula begins to mislead us.
Success is always something large-scale and grandiose. These are not just results, but outstanding results: a noticeable improvement in the quality of life, reaching a fundamentally new level, public recognition, etc. Well, serious results require equally serious efforts.
And here the formula “did = got” turns into a thinking trap and the main cause of failure. A person tries himself in some new activity and, not seeing the quick results to which he is already accustomed, easily loses interest in his activity. Didn't learn English in a week? Didn't start playing guitar masterfully in a month? Well, that means it’s not fate...
The danger of the “did = received” formula is that a person initially begins to apply his will and motivation not exactly where he needs it. In fact, to achieve outstanding results, it is not only the effort itself that is important, but also its duration. And the real “formula for success” looks like this:
The road to success is always a marathon. For example:
- It takes months of training to get an athletic body.
- For virtuoso guitar playing, thousands of hours of rehearsal are required.
- Success in business requires years of work and hundreds of big shots.
It doesn't matter how much a person wanted to achieve success and how much effort he put in in the early days. If from the very beginning he did not set himself up to “do it for the long haul,” then with a high degree of probability he will fail.
Persistence is exactly what helps us realize the second component of the “formula for success.” Its main purpose is to create, preserve and maintain the mood for long-term and serious work. Those who are persistent always prepare for a marathon, so they don’t give up what they started if they don’t see quick results.
Without persistence, a person is doomed to remain a “sprinter” and live by a “simplified formula for success.” This means that he will most likely have to be content with only small achievements.
Focus on opportunity
Think about the possibility. If you want to be persistent, you need to focus on what is possible, not what is impossible.
When you see an opportunity, you become positive and optimistic. Then you will get to work instead of giving up.
Most people give up because they lose hope and don't see how they can succeed if they continue.
Successful people are very positive. They focus on opportunities rather than obstacles. They think about the results they want rather than the problems they face.
When you change your mind and focus on what is possible, you become more assertive.
Slowly but surely
Children with the anal vector can be taught perseverance and hard work - they have all the makings for this. However, these skills themselves are unlikely to be fully developed, since in everything related to the development of children with an anal vector, the support of the mother is very important.
It is important to motivate such kids correctly - to praise them for their work, but not to cross the line and not bombard them with a stream of compliments. Accustomed to biased praise (for example, for something he has learned to do a long time ago), the child expects it for any action (and one that is well known and has been studied for a long time). And if a new activity appears that requires additional effort, the child may quickly retreat: first, he needs to do something difficult for which he cannot receive immediate praise; secondly, the fear of everything new, characteristic of the anal vector, puts him into a stupor.
However, children with an anal vector who are adequately praised (that is, instead of the standard: “What a great job you are!” - they use something like: “Look how well you thought, worked and thanks to this you coped with the task!”) and are supported in In any undertaking, from an early age they learn to show persistence and determination (rather than stubbornness and a tendency to doubt).
In teaching a baby with an anal vector, the system of breaking the material into separate components works best. Take small tasks, the material of which can be reinforced in a playful way. And be sure to combine and repeat the topics covered - the more you repeat the material you have studied, the better the baby with the anal vector will learn it. And he won’t be bored, believe me: on the contrary, he will feel more confident in it.
Take a break
Sometimes you need to rest and take a break. Your willpower works like your phone battery. When it's low, your tendency to give up and procrastinate increases.
The good news is that you can recharge your willpower and motivation by taking short breaks and resting.
You charge your phone every day, don't you? So why not do it to yourself?
When your willpower is high, you can persist and work towards your goals.
Reward yourself
When was the last time you rewarded yourself? Rewards can work as a commitment tool: once you've completed a task, reward yourself.
You want the task to be rewarding so you persist and get the job done.
So, think of a few ways to reward yourself. And every time you persist and complete a task, give yourself an appropriate reward.
There are many ways to reward yourself, but make sure you do it right.
For example, if your goal is to lose weight and you persist in completing a half marathon, don't reward yourself with food. There is no point in exercising to lose weight and then reward yourself with delicious ice cream.
Create a supportive influence
Did you know that the environment you are in can affect your persistence? The people you spend time with can also influence you.
Imagine training with a group of people who lack discipline and give up easily. When you are tired, they may tell you to stop and give up. But if you work with people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, he will inspire and motivate you to move forward.
Therefore, who you associate with can affect your characteristics, including your persistence.
If you want to write a book, don't write it in a distracting environment where it will quickly drain your willpower and reduce your persistence.
You want to work in an environment that supports you and your goals. Get ready to win. Create a conducive environment for you to persevere and move forward.
Make friends with people who have the characteristics of success.
Provide the right amount of stress
Too much stress makes you give up and give up. And too little stress makes it easy. But with the right level of stress, you will feel motivated and eager to get the job done and take on the challenge.
Just as the Goldilocks Rule , you have to imagine the right amount of challenge in what you're doing.
For example, you don't want to set an easy goal that you don't feel motivated to achieve. At the same time, you don't want to set a goal that is too far beyond your capabilities that you feel overwhelmed.
You want the challenge to be right.
According to the Yerkes-Dodson law:
Performance increases with physiological or mental arousal (stress), but only to a certain limit. When stress levels become too high, productivity decreases.
Therefore, depending on the task/goal, you may want to make the task harder or easier to motivate you to work on it.
The difference between perseverance and perseverance and stubbornness
A clear understanding of what perseverance and perseverance are, and what the difference between them is, allows you not to confuse them with stubbornness, which is by no means the best trait for a successful person. Perseverance and perseverance arise after setting goals, and stubbornness is a sudden, unreasonable and blind desire to achieve something. It is often based on someone else’s opinion, the desire to do everything one’s own way, in spite of someone else. Unlike perseverance, which moves a person forward, stubbornness leads to dead-end situations due to ridiculous, stupid and useless behavior. If perseverance stimulates positive changes in a person’s life, develops mental flexibility in finding new ways to achieve goals, then stubbornness causes the loss of an objective assessment of reality, inaction and repetition of the same mistakes.
When a person shows perseverance and perseverance in achieving his goals, this evokes the respect and admiration of others, people are attracted to him and are happy to help and support him. Everything happens exactly the opposite, when persistence is replaced by stubbornness. This irritates people and discourages them from connecting with such a person, much less following them. Stubbornness prevents you from finding mutual understanding with others and living in harmony with your own personality. It happens that long-term passive actions change perseverance to stubbornness, so you need to periodically ask yourself, while in a relaxed emotional state, about what actually drives a person - desired goals or stubbornness.
