Persistence; The Major Component to Achieve Success!

Have you ever had that nagging question in your mind? The one that goes something like this:

“I’d love to do [insert your dream goal here], but am I just kidding myself? I mean, I know others can achieve that, but I just don’t have what it takes.”

Now, maybe you think this because you see others who already know all you still have to learn. They seem so much better than you currently are. How could you ever catch up? Or maybe you’ve tried and failed and it’s got you discouraged.

That’s when you start having that sinking feeling maybe you should change your ambitions to something not so challenging; something you can do. Goodbye dream.

Look, we all feel like that from time to time, so don’t beat yourself up. But if you stay in that mindset you’ll never achieve your dreams. After all, you CAN do the impossible. It just takes one quality.

How One Quality Helped a Paralyzed Woman Achieve the Impossible…

Wilma Rudolf was born premature and fragile to a poor family, the 20th of 22 children. When she was four, her left leg became paralyzed from a bout with Polio. In what must have looked like a real version of Forrest Gump, Rudolf wore an iron leg brace afterwards to walk.

But when she was nine, she proved the doctors wrong by removing the leg brace and taking her first unassisted step. Four years later, after much hard work and physical therapy, she developed a regular gait. Again, something thought impossible.

But Wilma wanted more than just to prove the doctors wrong. Her mother had always told her she could do whatever she wanted in life. So despite her family’s financial situation, despite her fragile childhood and despite her twisted leg, she decided she wanted to be the greatest woman runner in the world.

“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” – Wilma Rudolph

As you can imagine, there were few people in her family or otherwise who encouraged her. But that didn’t stop her.

- When she entered a race at age 13 and came in last, she didn’t quit
- When she came in last almost every race through high school, she didn’t quit
- When she finally came in next to last, she didn’t quit. In fact, she pushed harder

That’s when things picked up for Wilma. Eventually, she won a race and went on to win many more.

In college, she trained with a coach who helped her enter the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

She ran the 100 and 200 meter sprints and was anchor for the 400 meter relay. And despite all her hardships–her financial issues, barely surviving her premature birth, her severe sickness, her paralyzed leg in the iron brace–Wilma Rudolf became the first American woman to win 3 Olympic gold medals at a single Olympic Games.

Have you figured out the one quality you need to achieve your dreams?

“If I had to select one quality that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick persistence. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, ‘Here comes number seventy one.’” – Richard M. Devos

Persistence Is the Key to All Locked Doors…

We all suffer from self-doubt, especially when we’re running into the unknown territory of our dreams and goals.

- We worry we’re not good enough
- We worry we’ll fail
- We worry others will pass us by

Well here’s the thing. All of that may be true. But so what?

- You may not be good enough right now
- You WILL make mistakes and fail
- Others further along the path might pass you by

But despite all of that, if you persist, you’re much more likely to succeed eventually.

It’s by persistence that you labor through failures to gain all that is required to achieve your goal. All of us can do that. It’s not magic or mystery. The secret is simply to figure out what you want, then keep trying, improving your approach where necessary, until you get there.

Take Wilma Rudolf as an example. She had serious hurdles holding her back. That didn’t stop her. She kept working hard until she achieved her dreams. I see a story like Wilma Rudolf’s and suddenly all my excuses why I can’t achieve my dreams seem whiny and ridiculous.

What excuses are you allowing to stop your dreams?

What are some solutions to get you around those obstacles?

Now, hit the track running and expect it to take time. You might not succeed tomorrow or next month, but eventually you’ll get there.

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose … If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” – Wilma Rudolph

Eight Steps To Push Through Any Obstacle And Motivate Yourself At Will

How would you like to learn the secret to overcoming any struggle, no matter how tough?

It’s mile 23, you have 3 more left and your leg starts cramping or you just quit your job, started your own business and suddenly you can’t find any clients. What do you do?

Any worthy endeavor requires struggle and hardship. Whether you strive for athletic mastery or professional success or you are just looking for that perfect partner, there will be moments in your journey when you want to quit. Those are the moments that shape character and separate successful people from failures.

Zig Ziglar once said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.”

Motivation is the fuel that keeps our inner fire shining bright. It keeps us pushing through those moments when all seems lost.

Follow these eight steps and you will never again be beaten by circumstance. These eight steps will allow you to generate motivation at will and define the path to your destiny.

1. Exercise Daily

When Sir Richard Branson was asked about his secret to productivity, his response was working out. And he runs a multi-billion dollar empire, so he probably knows what he is talking about.

Researchers have also found that when people start exercising, even if it’s just once a week, they start improving habits in other areas of lives as well. They start eating better, they get more done at work and they show more patience in their relationships. James Prochaska, a researcher at the University of Rhode Island says “ exercise spills over. There’s something about it that makes other good habits easier.”

Regular exercise is the quickest way to build confidence and increase motivation.

To get started on an exercise routine, find a local race, sign up for it and start training. It could be a 5k, a triathlon, a half marathon or a bike race. It does not matter what the race is, but by signing up for an event, you have a clear target to aim toward, you commit to it by paying the event fees and it is a great way to meet other driven, motivated people like yourself, which will help you with step 8 as well.

2. Practice stillness

In his research, Dr. Andrew Newberg found that those that engage in some form of meditation have greater activity in the parts of the brain associated with focus and attention than those that do not.

Meditation acts like a gym for the brain. It works out the conscious, thinking parts of the brain and reduces activity in the emotional parts of our brain out of our control. Bestselling author Jack Canfield attributes meditation to be the most important factor in his success.

Ever since I began a daily meditation practice, I have been able to stay focused on creating the life I want no matter how many times the struggles of entrepreneurship present themselves. Meditation allows me to stay centered and silence the chaos that runs through my mind about all the things I want to do in my business and my life.

At first, the practice might be difficult, especially since we are so conditioned to constant distractions. To get started, for at least 10 minutes a day, close your eyes, breathe in for four seconds and breathe out for four seconds. With no external distractions, just focus your mind on your breathe. If your mind wanders, that is okay. It is to be expected at first. If that happens, notice where your mind goes and bring it back to your breathing. Your breath serves as an anchor for you to direct your mind.

After a few days of meditation, you may not notice any changes in your life. But rest assured, in time, this exercise will produce noticeable benefits in your focus, drive and motivation.

3. Appreciate everything, everywhere

I do not like going into New York City. Nothing against the city, I just don’t like densely packed crowded areas. Probably a side effect of my experience in Iraq with the US Marines.

Nonetheless, I have now found a way to enjoy the city by appreciating every little thing about it. I tell myself things like “I appreciate the effort and the risk the people who built this building must have taken,” or “I appreciate the planning and hard work that went into organizing the streets in this massive city.”

By appreciating everything around me, I generate value from an experience that otherwise provided none. This keeps me inspired and motivated throughout my day in the city.

To build your appreciation muscles, at the end of every day, write down 3 things you are grateful for, 3 things you accomplished and why they are of value to you.

Dr. Martin Seligman found that after six months this simple exercise led to reduced depression, increased happiness and an overall improvement in the quality of life for those that did this every day.

4. Change your physiology

Studies have shown that the simple act of smiling when practiced over time actually reduces depression.

Smiling then is not just a reflection of joy, it is an act that creates joy as well.

In her research, social psychologist Amy Cuddy discovered that practicing a “power pose,” which is nothing more than standing tall with chin held high and arms and elbows out, for just 120 seconds is enough to create a 20 percent increase in testosterone and a 25 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol.

The next time you feel your motivation waning, stand tall and proud. Despite what might be going through your mind, shape your body in a manner that reflects someone who is unstoppable. Act like you are all powerful and your mind will believe it to be so.

5. Choose an empowering meaning to your experience

Any experience of life has no inherent meaning. We assign meanings to our experiences and those meanings shape our quality of life.

In the bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning, psychiatrist Victor Frankl documents his experiences in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Within the depths of hell, Victor Frankl chose to find meaning to his suffering. He wrote of his experience, “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”

As a result of the meaning he gave to his experience, he not only survived the horrors of a concentration camp, he lived a full life after he got out as well.

The next time you go through any kind of struggle and feel defeated by it, assign a label to your emotional state, then ask yourself what is the meaning you are assigning to the experience that has led to that state. Once you are clear on the meaning you are choosing, refocus your mind on the future you want to create, the future that lies on the other side of the struggle. Feel the emotion that this future produces in you. From that place, ask yourself what else can I make this mean.

Motivation is nothing more than a state of mind. By shifting the meaning you assign to experiences, you will be able to generate the state of mind of your choice no matter what circumstances present themselves around you.

6. Get immense clarity on what you want to create

Without clarity, our conscious brain gets confused by the paradox of choice. When it doesn’t know what to do, it will do nothing. Nobel Prize winning psychologist, Daniel Kahneman states “that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. Laziness is built deep into our nature.”

Having immense clarity of purpose, mission, vision and goals gives you a clear target to strive toward.

To develop that clarity, know exactly what you want and by when you want it. Don’t set a goal like I want more money. How much more do you want and by what day do you want it?

Get clear on all the visions for your life so you have a reason to stay motivated when you experience struggle.

7. Create systems using preemptive strikes

Systems prevent the lazy part of our brain from sabotaging us. They turn motivation and success itself into an automatic act that you no longer need to consciously generate.

In a hospital in Scotland, a British psychologist gave a group of elderly patients recovering from hip or knee surgery a notepad detailing their rehabilitation schedule. In the last section of the notepad, there were thirteen pages that instructed the patients to write down their goals for the week with exact details of what they were going to do and when.

In three months, the researcher discovered that the patients who planned out their week with specific details were walking twice as fast as the ones that did not. They were moving in and out of their chairs without assistance three times faster than those that did not.

When the psychologist examined the notebooks, he found that the patients that healed the fastest had written down how they would handle obstacles they knew would come up. One patient knew that getting up from the couch would be a painful experience, so he wrote out in detail a plan to manage that pain ahead of time, such as taking the first step right away to resist the desire to sit down.

Whatever goals you have in your life, write out a detailed plan for how you intend to go about accomplishing them. If you know you get lazy after work and don’t feel like going to the gym, put your gym clothes right in front of the door so that you almost trip over them when you walk into the home. Have your wife or husband unplug the TV. Write down exactly what exercise you will and what time you will do it. The key is to make it as easy as possible to act in the face of resistance without letting your brain come in the way.

By doing this, motivation will no longer be an act of the will, it will be nothing more than a natural part of your day.

8. Surround yourself with other driven people

Jim Rohn once said “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Your environment plays a significant role in shaping your destiny. Imagine if you wanted to run a marathon and everyone around you, your neighbor, your spouse, your family and your friends were training for a marathon as well, how much easier would it be for you to train for one?

As I mentioned in step 1, find ways to network and be around people with similar passions, dreams and desires. Success is a team sport, no one does it alone. Build your team and work together to keep each other motivated during those moments of struggle.

That’s it. Eight steps practiced repeatedly and success will turn from un uncertainty to an inevitability.

If you got any value from this post, share in the comments below one thing you are struggling with in terms of generating motivation and one tip you have for others to stay motivated when times are tough.

Life Rewards Action

Thinking is good, yes it is. I strongly encourage thinking. In fact, thinking plays a terrific role in success. It helps you strategize. It helps you get motivated. It tunes you into success. I am all for thinking and I do it regularly! 

That being said, just thinking, no matter how good of a thinker you are, will never catapult you to success. The difference between the thinker who succeeds and the thinker who doesn't is that the thinker who succeeds also ACTS! 

Life does not reward thinking. Life rewards action. Let me clarify: Life rewards thoughtful action. 

Think first, by all means... But then ACT!

Do you want to gain wealth? Then save your money - ACT!
Do you want to lose weight? Then hit the treadmill - ACT!
Do you want a new job? Then quit your current one - ACT!
Do you want to write a book? Then begin to write - ACT!
Do you want a new friend? Then introduce yourself - ACT! 

Anything you want to accomplish will only be done by bold and decisive action. 

Wishing won't bring it about. Neither will dreaming. Nor will hoping. Nor will just talking about it. Nope, you must ACT. 

What is it you want from life? Tell me. Be specific. Be clear. Think about it. Strategize. Roll it around inside that noggin of yours. Got it? Good. Now what? What will you DO to turn that non-physical electrical impulse we call a thought into a physical reality? There is only one thing: ACTION. 

Will you succeed? Will you achieve your dreams? Will you live the life that you want? Only you can make that decision because only you can decide whether or not you will act. 

My friends, life rewards action. Your actions do not need to be perfect. They just need to be. And then they get rewarded with success. With achievement. Accomplishment. You have the power within you to lead YOUR life as you see it. There is only one question you must answer for yourself: 

Will I act? 

Because Life Rewards Action! 

Six Ways to Stay Motivated

1. Get Motivated Every Day. 
Zig Ziglar was once confronted about being a "motivational speaker." The guy said to him, "You guys come and get people hyped up and then you leave and the motivation goes away. It doesn't last, and then you have to get motivated again." 

Zig reminded the gentleman that baths are the same way but we think it is a good idea to take a bath every day! It is true that motivation doesn't last. 

We have to renew it each and every day. That is okay. It doesn't make motivation a bad thing. We simply have to realize that if we want to stay motivated over the long term, it is something we will have to apply to ourselves each and every day. 

2. Have a Vision for Your Life.
The root word of motivation is "motive." The definition of motive is, "A reason to act." This is the cognitive or rational side of motivation. It is your vision. You have to have a vision that is big enough to motivate you. 

If you are making $50,000 a year, it isn't going to motivate you to set your goal at $52,000 a year. You just won't get motivated for that because the reward isn't enough. Maybe $70,000 a year would work for you. Set out a vision and a strategy for getting there. Have a plan and work the plan. 

3. Fuel Your Passion.
Much of motivation is emotional. I don't know quite how it works but I do know THAT it works. Emotion is a powerful force in getting us going. Passion is an emotion, so fuel your passion. "Well, I like to work on logic," you may say. Great, now work on your passion. Set yourself on a course to have a consuming desire for your goal, whatever it is. Do whatever you can to feel the emotion and use it to your advantage! 

4. Work Hard Enough to Get Results.
You can build on your motivation by getting results. The harder you work, the more results you will get and the more results you get, the more you will be motivated to get more. These things all build on one another. 

If you want to lose weight, then lose the first few pounds. When the belt moves to the next notch you will get fired up to get it to the notch beyond that! 

5. Put Good Materials into Your Mind.
I can't say this enough - listen to audios. I still listen to audios regularly. I buy audio clubs from other speakers and I learn and grow. Their successes motivate me to get my own successes! 

Read good books. Read books that teach you new ideas and skills. Read books that tell the stories of successful people. Buy them, read them, and get motivated! Buy great music and listen to it. I just did a spinning class at the club today. Whenever a good song came on I was actually able to get motivated to ride faster! It gets you going and motivates you! 

6. Ride the Momentum when It Comes.

Sometimes you will just be clicking and sometimes you won't. That is okay. It is the cycle of life. When you aren't clicking, plug away. 

When you are clicking, pour it on because momentum will help you get larger gains in a shorter period of time with less energy. That is the momentum Equation! When you are feeling good about how your work is going, ride the momentum and get as much out of it as you can! 

These are the top six ways to stay motivated: 
Get motivated every day. 
Have a vision for your life. 
Fuel your passion. 
Work hard enough to get results. 
Put good materials into your mind. 
Ride the momentum when it comes. 

These are simple principles, that when you put them to work regularly, will change your life by keeping you motivated all the time! So don't wait -- Get going! 

Taking Action: A Step Beyond Motivation

Taking action is the key to success and for many people, they rely on feeling motivated in order to take action. When we’re motivated, doing what needs to be done is easy. The challenge shows up when our level of motivation isn’t where we need it to be and as a result, at least for most people, the level of action taken decreases and even stops.

The Problem with Relying on Motivation

To understand why this happens, we need to realize that our level of motivation will go through an up and down cycle much like a roller coaster. Typically, when you start off working on a new goal, your level of motivation is high and therefore, taking action is easy. Think about how motivated people are at the beginning of each year and you’ll see what I mean.

Once the excitement from the “newness” of the goal goes away, motivation will tend to decrease. This usually occurs due to the decreased rate of expected results based on the amount of work that was put in. Progress is usually not a straight, upward line. Instead, it’s full of ups, downs, and plateaus. During the downs and plateaus, it’s often difficult to conjure up enough motivation to take massive action.

So if motivation isn’t something you can always rely on, what can you do to make sure you follow through on the necessary action steps that will take you from where you are to where you want to be? The answer is habit.

The Power of Habits

One of my favorite motivational quotes is from Aristotle where he said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Motivating yourself through various ways such as psyching yourself up, visualizing success, and so on is great but there will be times when you won’t even be motivated enough to motivate yourself. When your actions have been developed into habits however, very little conscious motivation is needed for you to take action.

If you study a bunch of successful people, you’ll find that most of them have a habit of performing the actions that led them to become successful. For example, people who are fit and have a great physique achieved that through proper diet and regular exercise, something that most people have a hard time doing consistently. If you asked them whether or not they need to motivate themselves to hit the gym, they’ll likely tell you that they don’t. They’ve been doing it for so long that it’s now just a part of their life like showering.

It’s All About Consistency

If you want to greatly increase your chances of success, here’s what you do. First, figure out what action steps you need to take on a consistent basis to achieve your goal. Second, use whatever motivation you have on disciplining yourself to take consistent action. This is the key. Without consistency, you’ll have a hard time developing successful habits.

As time goes by, your motivation will tend to drop but if you’ve been disciplining yourself to take action long enough, habit will start to kick in and help you out. The stronger the habit, the less you will need to consciously motivate yourself in order to take action. Just like bad habits, good habits are something you can depend on. Once the habits are formed, continue with the action until you achieve your goal. From there, choose another goal and repeat the process.

How long it takes to form a habit depends on the habit. Many people say it takes 21 days. For many habits, that’s probably correct. For some habits, it may take much longer but the key is to use every bit of motivation and discipline you can muster to develop those habits. If you’ve ever looked at someone successful and wondered how they make it look so easy, now you know; they’ve made what needs to be done a habit.

If the thought of constantly having to consciously motivate yourself is killing your motivation, focus on the fact that with discipline and time, things will get a lot easier. At the very least, aim for 21 days of consistent action. Focus on developing the right habits and success will only be a matter of time.