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Persistence leads to success

March 3rd, 2007

I have this book called “Thinking Body, Dancing Mind” by Chungliang Al Huang and Jerry Lynch. This book is a motivational / visualization book that is presented in pieces, such as “Fear of Success”, “Motivation”, etc. So, I keep this book by my bed and whenever I feel it calling my name (the uncontrollable urge to pick it up), I’ll open it at random to see what my lesson for the day is. I have yet to open it to one that isn’t EXACTLY the issue I’m dealing with.

My whole point of this is to share that after I wrote last night’s post, I had the urge to pick up the book and flip it open. And I flipped to “Persistence” and it calmed me down completely. I want to take a moment to share a couple of things from the section on persistence. The quote that it starts with is:

“Deliberate and slow cultivation…is the path to success and good fortune. Only by gradually developing your relationship with the area of your concern can you make the progress you desire. Calmness and adaptability along with good-natured persistence will see you through” – I Ching no.53

I get so caught up in wanting everything to happen fast at the same time that I know slow growth is best for the business. Here’s another good one directly from the book:

“Talent accounts for a mere 5 percent of most achievements. Those who appear to have much talent were once struggling beginners. It was persistence and hard work that led them to achievement and excellence.”

If you’re still with me, I’m going to bore you with a couple more excerpts that made sense to me:

“In sport, there is an expression that refers to the importance of persistence in learning a new skill or accomplishing a goal: “It’s all possible – you just need time in the saddle.”

I think it’s a good reminder for all of us who hear of the “took off overnight” businesses. The reality is that it takes a lot of practice and trial and error to even get to the point where a business has the opportunity to “take off overnight”. I don’t know, reading this for some reason put me at ease, let me know that we’re going to make it based on our persistence alone.

I’m going to end it with an anecdote from the book, the last line of which really struck home for me:

“Ray and Shirly Triplett took on one of the most difficult endurance athletic events possible. Over a period of eight years, they sailed by themselves one and a half times around the world. Facing violent storms, groundings on coral reefs, wars, pirates, shipwrecks, severe illness and near drownings, they persisted to its completion. According to Ray:

“We were tormented by the demons of the temptation to quit.”

Yet those harsh lessons taught them the wisdom of taking things one day at a time. They knew that with persistence, they would realize their goal. Giving up was not an alternative for them because they both felt that they couldn’t have lived with that decision later in their lives.”

And that’s my answer to the my demons who tempt me to quit – no way, no how, I couldn’t live with myself later in life.

Have a great weekend everyone, and let’s keep rolling one day at a time!

Entry Filed under: Motivation to Keep Moving