Charles Gregory, Author

Persistence— It’s the common thread that defines the difference between those who succeed in achieving their goals versus those who fail. Another word for persistence is ‘GRIT’. Persistence or Grit, in my humble opinion, is the one trait that everyone is required to have in order to triumph over the inevitable challenges that they’ll face throughout their life. In this article, we’ll explore what persistence is and what it isn’t, we’ll look at how persistence can positively impact all areas of one’s life, and we’ll learn how anyone can develop this valuable trait.

 

 

What is persistence? At first, it might seem like an obvious question with an even more obvious answer. One could theoretically say, “I persisted at it for several hours and failed at accomplishing _________ task.” But that isn’t persisting, that was simply perseverance. Let’s expand this idea a little more. If I’ve never attempted the task in question, it doesn’t make sense to talk about persistence, since, up until that point, I’ve never had to persist to learn and master it. Persistence comes into play after you’ve failed at something before. Persistence is when you keep trying to do something that you haven’t been able to master. It’s the idea that, that after many setbacks, you will try and try again until you have a positive breakthrough. When talking about persistence, we’re saying that someone was able to overcome the adversity that failing at a task brought. We’re talking about a person’s capacity to endure failure, to deal with being unable to do something, and to get past the self-doubt that often accompanies these feelings. As an aside, one of the things I love about training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, is that it demands persistence in order to become proficiently skilled and progress in rank. From what I have experienced and witnessed, it’s the persistent individuals that truly succeed in this gritty Martial Art. While it’s true that youth, athleticism, and scrappiness can give you an edge, it’s ultimately those that consistently train day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year that ultimately succeed. As Bo Schembechler (GO BLUE!) famously said, “Those who stay will be champions!” Alright, enough of my Martial Arts ranting. Let’s continue shall we…

 

Understanding Persistence

Persistence refers to the continuation of effort, persisting and striving over time, even in the presence of setbacks, opposition, or failure. It is the tendency for a person to NOT give up — to be relentless — such that they eventually overcome the obstacles and accomplish their competing goals. This characteristic is often correlated with becoming an entrepreneur, an outstanding athlete, a great artist, etc.

 

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Distinguishing Persistence from Stubbornness

Although persistence involves sticking with one’s determination even when the going gets tough, it is not the same as stubbornness. The latter is used to describe a refusal to accommodate new information, new perspectives, or being open-minded to other possible solutions. Stubbornness involves taking the position that we know best and will not shift our approach to solving or overcoming a problem even when data suggests that the current approach is not working. Persistence, on the other hand, is a positive, adaptive orientation; it is a stance that says: ‘I am fully committed to realizing my goal and will stick with it, but I am open to changing my strategy if something new arises.’

 

The Role of Persistence in Achieving Success

• Overcoming obstacles: More often than not, success is not easily obtainable. Anything worth pursuing in life will have monstrous obstacles to overcome. If you do not recognize or account for this truth, you will probably fail in your endeavors. Persistence, however, helps individuals work past inevitable failures, shortcomings, and setbacks. For example, it took Thomas Edison over 1,000 tries to finally invent the light bulb. Persisting through failure eventually led to his success.

 

• Discipline over motivation: Persistence, unfortunately, is often correlated with motivation; however, it’s truly discipline that provides the consistent needed energy to achieve a goal. If one relies on motivation alone, when they feel they are not making progress, they will often lose motivation and either pause or quit pursuing their goal. Why do you think diet and exercise fads continue to be such big business? It’s because people can be fickle, undisciplined, and want to “hack” their way to success versus persisting through. At the end of the day, it’s a disciplined or persistent person who works diligently that has the highest probability of success.

 

 

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• Expertise: Work that is done repeatedly over time will become more perfected. Ongoing effort deepens skills and knowledge. Numerous studies document the benefits of deliberate practice — of doing things over and over again. For example, writers may gain expertise by writing every day. Athletes will eventually become experts only after rigorous training. Perseverance builds both expertise and discipline. From a Martial Arts perspective, I was always taught that mastery over a technique involves doing said technique a minimum of 1,000 times correctly.

 

How to Cultivate Persistence:

• Set GOALS: The first step is to clearly define your objective, with a focus on S.M.A.R.T goals. One of my business/leadership mentors from the Hospitality Industry, Paul O’Connor (God rest his soul), strongly emphasized this to me until it was innate. If you aren’t already familiar with the concept, S.M.A.R.T goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART). This clarity in deliberate goal setting allows for efficient focus on effort and resources.

 

• Welcome challenge, embrace mistakes, and persist in learning: To develop a growth mindset, acknowledge how your experience can shape your abilities and potential. This approach to performance, discussed by the US psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset — How You Can Fulfill Your Potential, embraces challenges and mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.

 

• Put Together a Cheering Section: Being surrounded by a network of friends, family, mentors or peers who are invested in your goal, who can see its value, and who cheer you on can dramatically increase your stick-to-it-iveness.

 

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• Work at Self-Resilience: Practice self-resilience: manage stress, think positively, recover quickly from setbacks.

 

• Have a System and Rhythm: Good time management with regular breaks is crucial to avoid burnout and sustain your most productive rhythms. You need to learn to know when to stop as well as when to push forwards.

 

• Revise and Review: Being persistently committed to your goal or vision also requires regularly evaluating your strategies and revising them as required. It’s this element of adaptability that distinguishes persistence from stubbornness: staying flexible while maintaining your ultimate objective. I do highly recommend also giving the appropriate timetable to properly evaluate if a strategy is working or not. I will use fitness as an example again. If I were to start a new exercise and diet regimen, it would not be fruitful to evaluate the effectiveness of those regimens after only a day or week of implementation. Because you have to give time for the process to work, it may be more prudent to evaluate after 30 days of disciplined activity.

 

Real-Life Examples of Persistence

Whether you admire these individuals or not, you cannot deny their professional success, much of which was achieved by enduring through multiple challenges while pursuing and perfecting their God-given talents.

 

· J K Rowling: Years before Harry Potter succeeded in the book market, Rowling had her manuscript rejected by twelve different publishers. If she’d given up after the ninth or the eleventh or the twelfth rejection, we wouldn’t have the wildly successful Harry Potter series.

 

· Elon Musk: Although he’s a founder of Tesla and SpaceX and has pioneered new technology including the Tesla electric car and the PayPal digital financial transaction system, by far his best achievement has been the way that he’s persevered through multiple failed rocket launches, and almost bankrupting Tesla a few years ago. His ability to continue has had a great effect on technology and the automobile industry.

 

· Oprah Winfrey: Oprah went from poverty to being a media empress: she overcame a lot of early career setbacks and judging by her background and gender, there was a lot to overcome in the first place. However, she persisted and successfully hosted a top-rated show for 25 seasons plus revolutionized daytime TV and media as a whole.

 

· Michael Jordan: Foremost NBA hoopster of all time, Michael Jordan was tragically rejected when he was cut from his own high-school basketball team, but this rejection served as inspiration to him to work even harder and produce the most successful basketball career in NBA history, with six championships, a 14 time ALLSTAR, and a five-time MVP.

 

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Conclusion

Far from being an individual characteristic, persistence is a powerful force that makes innovation, mastery, and success ultimately possible. Knowing and working with persistence enables you to deal with the obstacles that every journey besets you with, enabling you to stay on track and reach your target. Whatever your dream, whether as an artist or an entrepreneur, writer, or adventurer, when it comes to achieving your long-term goals, persistence is an ally to be cultivated. You will be rewarded for perseverance, not for obstinacy. Unlike the latter, it is strategically effective, flexible, subtle and adaptive. Above all, persistence works.

 

CALL TO ACTION: Want to Empower Yourself by being more Persistent?

1) Here are my personal highly recommended readings below to help you with persistence. You can check them out directly and order them on the affiliate links below:

· DISCIPLINE EQUALS FREEDOM by Jocko Willink

 

· GRIT by Angela Duckworth

 

· THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY by Ryan Holiday

 

· CAN’T HURT ME by David Goggins

 

· MINDSET by Carol Dweck

 

2) Sign up at Charlesm.online and be notified every time I write a new Blog on Empowerment, Martial Arts, or Interesting People.

 

3) Check out my other help blogs on at:https://charlesmonline.wordpress.com/category-empowerment/