The Importance of Persistence in Achieving Your Goals

This week, I’ve hit a slump. I have failed on a number of different fronts while attempting to move my business ahead, and I won’t lie: it is frustrating and discouraging. The tendency is to avoid the issues and procrastinate, or start engaging in completely random activities (social media, anyone?). Ah the joys of avoidance! This is the way to permanent failure, though, instead of being recognized as what it is: just another stone in the road.

Instead, do like “Steve”, the main character of DisneyNature movie “Penguins” when he said: “Look, an obstacle!” – followed by a cute penguin hop over a tiny rock (if you haven’t watched that movie yet, I highly recommend it). Steve shows us that challenges can be viewed as adventures to be conquered.

Why persistence is important

When we set goals for ourselves, persistence and determination are key. As humans, we have a natural tendency to give up as soon as we hit our first obstacles or things get difficult, especially when it comes to long term goals.This is why most people fail and few succeed: most will lose focus and quit before they reach their goals. Being talented, having an above average intelligence, good connections, all available resources won’t make you successful if you are not persistent. 

Persistence is key to success.

The basis of persistence is desire

When we set off with a goal, it is based on a desired outcome. For example, we may want to lose an x amount of pounds and gain muscle mass. We desire the result. The process to get there will only be fully executed if that goal matters enough to get us through. Deep desire propels us and makes us persistent, and persistence pays off: it gives us the needed energy and focus to keep climbing that mountain that leads to our goal.

If at any point we realize the goal is not really that important, and our desire is no longer strong enough, our persistence will fade and it will be a lot more difficult to keep at it when we hit a snag. Never underestimate the importance of persistence!

Persistence leads to success

Famous successful people were persistent at working to reach their goals, even obstinate at times. Walt Disney (did I just mention Disney twice?) comes to mind – if you look into his life story, he had every reason to have given up before making it. Thomas Edison was no stranger to failure. All talent in the world would not have led him to success if he had given up. The one key thing they had, besides their talent: persistence. 

Persistence gives us strength to resist to the many obstacles that appear on our path to success:

• Fear of failure
• Fear of criticism
• Lack of self confidence
• Lack of defined plans of action
• Distractions
• Lack of willingness to take responsibility 
• Indecision
• Lack of desire
• Lack of ambition
• Etc

What other ones can you think of?

Ways to develop persistence

Identify your goal

First of all, it is necessary to properly identify your personal goal; the one thing you desire above all things. As mentioned above, without a strong desire you cannot persevere.

You have to then be detailed about it and devise a specific plan to achieve it. Going back to the fitness goal, for example, this would mean: how many pounds do I want to lose, how much muscle mass do I want to gain, by when, how, and why?

Write all of these down. Important: make it realistic.

Develop Support Systems

Second, it is good to have a support system: someone who can keep you accountable, even a mastermind group depending on the nature of your challenge. Notice this may be a group outside your family and close friends, since many times we don’t get the appropriate support or belief from them.

Use Positive Affirmations

Third, positive affirmations can be of great help to assist you in overcoming some of the obstacles presented above, which are mostly problems created by our own mind. (If you want to learn more about how positive affirmations work, check out this blog post).

Positive affirmations are great in setting our belief system in the direction we need to keep motivated and believing in ourselves.

Use examples as guides

Look into successful cases for inspiration. Is there anyone who has achieved what you are looking to do/get? Use them as role models, study what they have done, and know that the main skill they were able to develop is nothing you can’t work on with some effort: persistence.

When persistence doesn’t pay

More known as stubbornness, we must know when an effort is destined to fail, and pivot. It may not be realistic to say you want to be the richest person in the world (although someone will be). Sometimes it’s just not meant to be. Sometimes the strategy you are using to implement a project is not the best and you need to adjust course while keeping the same original goal. You need to determine if it’s a case to cut your losses, or pivot. This is where your trusted group of advisors (who are knowledgeable people you carefully selected) can come in to orient you.

Persistence Quotes

If this is not enough to convince you, here is a list of famous quotes to back the importance of persistence:

“Persistence is probably the single most common quality of high achievers. They simply refuse to give up” – Jack Canfield

“Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure” – Aisha Tyler

“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success” – Dale Carnegie

“One thing we all know; if one does not process persistence, one does not achieve noteworthy success in any calling” – Napoleon Hill

“Persistence overshadows even talent as the most valuable resource shaping the quality of life” – Tony Robbins

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up” – Thomas A. Edison

“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature” – John D. Rockefeller

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” – Confucius

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm” – Winston Churchill

So go ahead and bookmark this post and whenever you feel discouraged or feel like giving up, come back to it for reference and inspiration; then readjust, reevaluate, reassess, set course, and keep going towards your dreams – there is not a better reason to be alive and we are rooting for you.