Persistence is your Driving Force

Persistence is your Driving Force

There are so many great examples of inventors, scientists and other successful people that can help us understand what persistence really means. Thomas Edison tried more than thousand times to invent the electric bulb and Henry Ford, who decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, never stopped believing, even though after several months his engineers were kept telling him that is impossible to build such motor. We also have persistence when, for example, we have an exam and we can’t solve that math problem with the first try, and we try again until we find the solution; that discipline is persistence. Another example of persistence is when people don’t treat us with respect but we do, because we honor our values and we want to continue to do the right thing.

Is persistence always a positive thing?

Persistence is a very important value and it’s responsible for not giving up; but to achieve your goals you also need the wisdom to see your approach with different perspectives. In Thomas Edison’s example, he put more than 6,000 substances to the test before he discovered that carbonized cotton thread makes a nice filament for the electric bulb. Even in our everyday problems, to overcome them, we need to recruit different perspectives for them, e.g. my hobby is football, and I want to be a professional football player and I persist in trying, but I don’t see any results. The key here is to think “why don’t I see any results in spite of my effort?”, “maybe I have to change team because I don’t feel motivated enough, or I have to change the way I’m training or the way I understand the game”. Otherwise, if I kept trying in the same way, without allowing myself to see other perspectives, my chances for success would be fewer than there are now. It is very important to remember that persistence is the “engine”, but there isn’t only one road to lead us to our goal.

How can someone develop persistence?

The number one thing is to decide what we want and set goals. You might want to go to university and study, or chase your dream, or build and run your own company, or you might want to draw for living or going after a career as a singer, or play professional basketball. Whatever it is, you have to be very specific with it and make it your target. But remember that the journey will not be easy, it will have many obstacles and setbacks, and there will be times that you might think to give up, but those times will forge your persistence.

Be brave and always remember your goal no matter what the circumstances. Besides that, take the first step; begin the journey to your goals, even if you don’t feel ready yet.

Review your progress, acknowledge your mistakes, re-evaluate your choices, and try again.

Last but not least, maintain your focus. Write down your goals on a piece of paper, on your phone’s wallpaper, on your desktop, somewhere you can see them many times a day, to not lose focus on them. Set up your room, your home, your workplace if possible in such a way that can help you maintain your focus on your goals, remove whatever it isn’t necessary, and continue your journey.