6 Effective Ways to Become Persistent
August 4 by Lou Macabasco 16K Shares | Productivity
Persistence is probably one of the most admirable characters a person can possess. It’s the ability to be determined to do or achieve something regardless of any setbacks.
No great achievement is possible without persistent work. – Bertrand Russell
A distinguishing attributes of those who succeed in life against those who don’t is persistence.
Many has the capacity to set goals and plans toward success, yet only few succeeds, because only few stick to work on their goals and plans until it is accomplished.
Majority stops before they even start or they quit in the middle of their journey. Oftentimes, the reason for quitting is hardships, discomfort and uncertainty. They let their fears and doubts paralyze them from moving persistently toward their goals. Or perhaps, their motivation isn’t firm enough to drive them to work on it.
6 Ways to Develop Persistence
The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job. – Napoleon Hill
Developing persistence is a master skill to success. It is easier to relax and do nothing, or just live in our comfort zone, rather than face the uncertainty and discomfort of sailing thru our goals. Plus, the idea of failure and hardship is unbearable.
But if you want to create change in your life and achieve success, now is the time to develop and master persistence. Here are six (6) ways to help you develop persistence:
1. Identify Your Wants and Desires
If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. – Lawrence J. Peter
Before you can develop persistence and eventually achieve success, you need to first identify your wants or desires. You can do this by simply writing down specifically all the things you want to have or accomplish. List down all your desires and wants, no matter how impossible they are to achieve in the moment.
2. Determine Your Motivation
Motivation comes from a deep reason why we want to achieve or have something. If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, it gives you more energy to keep moving.
For an instance, you want to publish a book. Creating a book takes time and patience. If you don’t have enough motivation, a reason why you need to publish the book, you probably can never finish it. But if you’re motivated by the thought of influencing and teaching millions of readers thru your words, only then will you keep pushing yourself to work on finishing the book.
3. Outline Your Definite Action Step
Identifying your wants or desires speaks of what you want to achieve. Determining your motivation shows the reasons why you want to achieve what you want. Outlining your definite action step is necessary to know how you will be able to achieve what you want.
When you know how to get what you want, it makes it easier to achieve it. To know how, it pays to do some research and planning of what needs to be done on your part. Be specific on each step you need to take. Identify at least two (2) ways and plans on how you can achieve your goals.
4. Keep a Positive Mental Attitude
The road to success is not easy, in fact, it’s challenging, this is why only few succeeds. There will be countless times you will be face with defeat and failures that if you are weak, you’ll be succumbing to negative thoughts of fears and doubts.
In order to develop persistence and eventually succeed in your endeavor, always maintain a positive mental attitude, regardless of situation. Keep your thoughts focused on taking action towards your goals. Avoid negative thoughts and feelings for it will ruin your concentration and persistence.
5. Build Your Mastermind Group
Mastermind Group composes of people who can help you succeed towards your goal. Choose carefully who you will trust as part of your mastermind group. If possible, include only those who can give you unbiased judgments and who has positive mental attitude. You can’t afford wasting your time listening to cynical advices and pessimist people. These types of people won’t help you succeed; instead, they will drown your energy that can eventually lead to failure.
6. Develop Discipline and Habit
All your goal-setting and planning will go to waste if you won’t be able to develop discipline and good habit.
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. – Jim Rohn
There will be a lot of hindrances that will stop you from moving towards your goal, and without proper discipline, it will be easy for you to sail away. Upholding discipline and good habits can help you stay in the course, even despite difficulties.
From all things mentioned, motivation is most important. But for good motivation, person needs to have clear reasons and true will to achieve.
Clear goals, clear cause of action and visualization of the prize when the goal is completed is of outmost importance for achieving.
Keep your head high, stay motivated. No fear, just do it.
These are excellent steps. I think the mastermind group is a key element although it can be a challenging one to not only set up but to keep going. If people are too imbalanced in a way that they are too lopsided in either the contributer or receiver sides, they often end up leaving. So there must be a nice mix of being able to give and receive for such groups to go on. But when they work, they are great for sure.
Great article! I really like the points about having a positive attitude and discipline. I think those 2 are very important for me to stay persistent!
Like the article. As trite as it may seem, the greatest way to persist is just not to quit. I talk about this in my book “Get ER Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity.” Green Berets don’t have any super human powers. They just take each situation head on and adapt, improvise and overcome.
Another way to grow persistence, one I read about in ’50 ways to create great relationships’ by Steve Chandler, is to say ‘no’. This can’t be used for every goal ofcourse, but sometimes the statement of consiously saying no to something is way stronger than a vague goal like ‘I want a better job’ or ‘I want more money’. Saying ‘I will not be in this job anymore!’ or ‘No, I do not want to be overweight anymore’ gives some extra power to your statement and helps sticking to it!
That can be an alternative that may be effective to people. But I’m a believer of positive confirmation, such as the one stated in The Secret. But I agree that we also have to know when to say no. :)
Thanks everyone for the feedback and additional insights. I’m glad this article has been helpful and enlightening to the readers. :)
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”
I like sharing the story of Jerry, especially if i share tips on how to stay positive in life. :)
I’m sorry, but are you kidding me with the verb agreements in this article? You need to have someone proofread. I was unable to take this article seriously because of the grammatical errors. No offense, it’s just extremely unprofessional.
Thanks for your feedback. as long as it is understood by majority of people and they get some tips out of it, this article serve this purpose. For this is not a writing contest, but sharing of experiences, tips and life lessons. :)
Lou, thanks for the value in this article. There are some who may be critical toward grammatical mistakes and these are the people that wear grammer radars. Some of them will send a constructive alert in a nice way and I have no problems with them because I feel they are really trying to give efficient advice or tips.
Then you have the group of people, you really have to wonder about, their reply posts seem to shout and badger you in the meanest way imaginable. It makes you wonder whether they are prozac users or do they possibly suffer a form of mental illness. Hey, lighten up…it’s not that crucial…let me be the first to send you a “cyber hug” (lol). Last but not least, you have a group of people who really appreciate value and will overlook grammatical errors, in my opinion value rules (there are some authors who write professionally without error but produce no value what-so-ever). Don’t get me wrong professionalism has it’s rightful place and standards but in some atmospheres you can get by with the minimum…and I think this is one of them. This feels like a more laid back atomosphere. Sorry if I crushed any toes…”ouch”.