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This bootcamp is designed to help you gain insight into who you are, and help you determine the best approach to improve your life.
In Day 6, we learned about the importance of Paying the Price. Today, we are going to cover a very important area, Persistence.
I want to start this section out with one of my favorites comes from President Calvin Coolidge. I actually memorized this quote a few years ago. He said that: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
My main area of persistence for me has been my internet business. I started it over 10 years ago as a hobby. I built it into a part time business and finally I was able to go full time with it and start hiring employees, but I needed to be persistent.
One of the most famous examples of persistence is Thomas Edison and the Light Bulb. If you never head the story, it’s worth knowing. If you heard it before, it’s worth thinking about again. Thomas Edison is best known as the inventor of the light bulb. In truth, he really is the inventor of the first lighting system. The first light bulb was actually invented years earlier. But, here is the amazing part. During his career, he and his team had over 4700 failed experiments before they were able to develop a usable and effective lighting system. Now, that’s persistence.
People like to say that Thomas Edison failed his way to success. He kept failing until he found out what works. He never gave up. One of the challenges with persistence is that we all know that it’s important, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It’s frequently easier to give up. I have a few tips that I can share with you on persistence. Some of these apply to all facets of Self Improvement, but are well worth repeating.
One important way to remain persistent is to Be Prepared. Try to anticipate all possible things that are going to go wrong and have alternative options ready to go. Things don’t always go according to plan. If we aren’t ready for these glitches or failures or setbacks, they will slow us down and often stop us in our tracks. We need to persist past the setbacks. The more prepared we are, the greater our ability will be to keep going.
One of my favorite modern quotes on persistence comes from the movie “Batman Begins”. In the movie, Alfred the butler asks Bruce Wayne: And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. It’s important to Be Prepared, even over-prepared. Often, people are under prepared to take on their goals.
Another way to persist is to Get a buddy and help each other to be persistence. This could be your spouse, your boss, a good friend, anybody who wants to help you achieve your goals. Your goal buddy’s responsibility it to keep you motivated and your responsibility is to keep him or her motivated. I also mentioned the concept of modeling or copying successful people before. I would recommend that you Find other persistent people and see what and how they are doing it.
Another effective technique is to write notes or leaves signs for yourself to remind you to be persistent. Leave motivational notes around to remind you to state focused and persist. Some people use index cards they review daily. Some people use post its. You can even add apps to your smartphone or blackberry to keep you motivated. They really work.
Another technique is to Picture the final outcome. Ask yourself “What will happen if you are persistent in a particular area of your life?” Other people use motivational tapes and books and videos to help them be persistent. Chris Widener talks about one of the great motivators of our time, Zig Ziglar. Chris wrote that Zig Ziglar was once confronted about being a "motivational speaker." The guy said to him, "You guys come and get people hyped up and then you leave and the motivation goes away. It doesn't last, and then you have to get motivated again." Zig reminded the gentleman that baths are the same way but we think it is a good idea to take a bath every day! Persistence and motivation go hand in hand, and need to be renewed on a daily basis.
One final suggestion has to do with habits. You need to develop good habits of persistence to replace bad habits. Studies have shown it takes about 21 days to develop a new habit, so for 21 days you need to be consciously aware of the change you are trying to make. It’s not easy, but once you develop the new habit, you’re that much closer to success.
My challenge for everybody watching is to identify one area of their life that they need to be more persistent, and then setup some specific goals to be more persistent in that area. Please post your goals in the comments below!
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