"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent won't; there is nothing more common than talented but unsuccessful men. Wisdom will not; wisdom without reward is almost as common as a proverb. Education will not; The world is full of educated homeless people. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. "
Calvin Coolidge
Persistence is the fifth and final pillar of self-discipline.
What is persistence?
Persistence is the ability to maintain action regardless of your feelings.
When you work towards achieving some great goal, motivation goes up and down. Sometimes you will feel motivated and sometimes you will not. But it is not motivation that produces results, it is your actions. Persistence allows you to keep taking action even when you don't feel motivated to do so, and therefore the results add up. As a consequence of these favorable results is when motivation appears.
For example, you can become much more enthusiastic about diet and exercise once you have lost the first 10 kilos and you feel that your clothing fits you more loosely.
When to resign?
Should you always persist and never give up? Of course not. Sometimes giving up is clearly the best option.
So how do you know when to give up?
Is your plan still correct? If not, update the plan. Is your goal still correct? If it isn't, update or abandon your goal. It is foolish to cling to a goal that no longer inspires you. Persistence is not stubbornness.
This was a very difficult lesson for me to learn. I had always believed that you should never give up, that once you set a goal, you must stick with it until you achieve it. The captain goes down with the ship and all that. If I have ever been unable to finish a project that I started, I would feel very guilty about it.
Eventually I realized that this is nonsense.
If you are growing in everything as a human being, then you are going to be a different person every year than you were the year before. And if you are conscious of achieving personal development, the changes are usually drastic and fast. You cannot guarantee that the goals you set today will be what you want to achieve next year.
In order to accommodate new goals, we have to remove or complete the old ones. Sometimes new goals are so compelling and inspiring that there is no time to complete old ones and they have to be abandoned half finished. I've always found this awkward to do, but I know it's necessary. The hard part is consciously deciding to scrap an old project, knowing that it will never be completed. I have finished the Pedagogy degree, I have two years left to finish the Psychology degree and I only have 7 subjects left to finish the Teaching one. Consciously I decided to abandon the careers of Psychology and Teaching, it was very hard for me. I took a long time to make the decision. But it was necessary for my own growth to be able to do this.
I still had to solve the problem of setting goals that could be considered obsolete in a year due to my own personal growth. How can I solve this problem? I cheated. I realized that the only way to set long-term goals that didn't get out of date would be for them to be in line with my own planning process. personal improvement. The search for personal improvement has been a stable constant for me for a long time. So instead of trying to set fixed goals like I did with my careers, I started setting broader and more dynamic goals that aligned with my own growth. This new business allows me to dedicate myself to self-improvement and share what I learn with others. Therefore growth itself is the goal. This creates a symbiotic relationship, in which helping others results in my own growth, which in turn generates new ideas to help others.
The direct and conscious search for self-improvement is my only goal.
The value of perseverance does not come from stubbornly clinging to the past. It comes from a vision of the future that is so compelling that you would give almost anything to make it happen. Being able to help people grow and solve their most difficult problems is much more challenging for me. I hope this blog brings real value to people.
Persistence of action comes from persistence of vision. When you are super clear about what you want, you will be more consistent and persistent in your actions. Consistency of action will produce consistency of results.
Can you identify a part of your life where you have shown a pattern of persistence long-term? I think if you can identify it it can provide you with a clue about your mission, something you can work on with passion and self-discipline.
This post is the sixth part of a series of articles on self-discipline: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | Part 6
If I want to keep growing indefinitely, I have to maintain a certain level of challenge and keep raising the bar higher and higher. I can't let things get too boring.I leave you with a video that leaves us with a good moral to apply in our lives:
Hello, my most important persistence pattern, for many years, has been to be comfortable in my skin and to be able to relate as I really am. I study psychology, but the truth is that things are not clear at all at a general level. I have heard that writing down your goals and reading them every day is an important form of motivation. My problem is that I don't know what my goals are, is there a way to discover what will fill you up or clarify your ideas? A simple orientation is worth it, thank you very much, greetings.
Hi! The information has been very useful to me; I am almost finishing my degree in dentistry, which from the beginning I did not want, I wanted and want to be a Doctor, and as much as I try to hold on to the career, I do not feel the passion that I feel for Medicine; The phrase that impacted me the most is the following: »It is foolish to cling to a goal that no longer inspires you»… So I am going to work hard until I achieve my goal! No matter how many times I fall, or how many times I get depressed, even if it takes me years, I will keep trying !; Thanks!!! A hug!!! and congratulations for this blog.
Hi, I really believe that my self-discipline is at zero, I have tried many methods: making agendas, writing my goals, thinking about my long and short term goals, but I always end up doing nothing, it is even more terrible, there are days that I feel So fruitful that I would like to go away from everything and start over, but I know that the career I chose (teaching) is what I like, I am passionate about, I think of my family and my partner who support me and even so I feel that I am alone, And that I need something that motivates me more to continue, what am I failing to feel like this all the time?
Hi Astrid, maybe you need some additional incentive. Join a teacher forum or watch videos on YouTube about teaching when you feel that your motivation is failing.
Before you start studying, lie down on the bed and think about why you are doing all this, what you like most about the career and think about what you will do when you become a teacher. Connecting with people who have the same goal is also highly recommended to give you a little feedback and motivate each other.
You will tell us to see how you are doing or if it works for you.