The Yin And Yang Of Persistence

To be successful in anything you must practice persistence.  Without it we would give up the first time we failed.  But there’s more to it than just having a ‘never give up’ attitude.  In this post I want to present you with the different ways of persisting and which ones will help you reach your goals.  Is blind persistence a good thing?  Should you really ‘never give up’?  Let’s go deeper into the facets of this key act/trait and see how we should be utilizing our abilities to ‘push through the pain’ so we may reach our goals and obtain our dreams.

But first, let’s take a look at the definition of Persisting:

According to dictionary.com Persisting means…

1: To be obstinately repetitious, insistent, or tenacious.

2: To hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks.

I thought these two definitions were very interesting.  The first one is representative of persistence in it’s purest form.  Here we see plain and simple tenacity.  But if we were to leave it in that pure form without adding some key ingredients it may turn into a ‘bull in a china shop’ scenario.  All power with no control or direction.  In comes definition number 2. Here we see the idea of holing to a ‘purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warning, or setbacks.’  This one gives a little more direction.  It’s not just being insistent to be insistent.  Here we are talking about being insistent for a purpose.  And it is this that I want to expand on throughout this post.

How the Pros become Pros

In a previous post I introduced a book I was reading called “Life Is Not A Game Of Perfect”.  It is an inspiring motivational book written by Dr. Bob Rotella.  As a sports psychologist he talks a lot about the different traits he sees in the professional athletes he works/associates with.  One such individual is Tom Kite.  Tom is a professional golfer who has a quite an impressive career including a win, in 1992, at the U.S. Open.

In the book, Rotella talks about how, as a young boy, Tom used to dream about being a professional golfer and how he pursued that dream quite persistently.  But this dream didn’t come easily.  As Rotella puts it,

“Tom held on to his dream in the face of people who told him he was too small, too nearsighted, and not talented enough.”

He held onto that dream through more than twenty years of disappointments in the majors.  He held on to it after he hit a ball into the water to lose his lead in the fourth round of the 1989 U.S. Open.  He held on to it through hours and days and years of practicing under the hot Texas sun, rebuilding his swing so that he would not again hit such a shot under pressure.

And, finally, he won the U.S. Open in 1992.”

According to Rotella, it is this persistence that allows us to eventually reach our dreams.  He says, “A dream without a commitment is just a fantasy.”  But persistence alone is not enough.

The definition of insanity

You know what they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  All too often, people treat their persistence this way.  In pursuing their dreams, they try the same thing over and over again and expect the outcome to one day change from a negative to a positive.  But the fact of the matter is, if it’s not working for you, doing it ten more times won’t make a difference.  This point was made very effectively in a post I found over at dime-co.com called ‘The Truth About Persistence And Success’ by Royane Real.

The basic point of the article is the fact that motivational speakers/writers always talk about the importance of persistence in our success, but tend to leave out the need for constant adjustment and re-assessment.  As Real puts it,

“They forget to tell you that before they were persistent, they had a goal, and they had a plan on how to get there.

And all along the way, after every step they took, they stepped back to evaluate the results to see if the results they were getting were the results they wanted. And if they weren’t getting the results they wanted, then they would change the steps they took.

These successful people did have persistence, but they were only persistent about holding on to their vision.

They were never persistent about the method they took to get to their goal.

All along the way, they were prepared to be very flexible and experiment to see what techniques and strategies worked best to get where they wanted to go.”

The yin and yang of persistence

If you read the entire chapter by Rotella and the entire post by Real you will see that they are both talking about the same things but from different perspectives.  But I think to pull out these excerpts we are able to see two very important aspects of this valuable trait.  In it’s pure form you have something that just won’t quit.  A focus and drive that is not going to let obstacles keep it from reaching it’s destination.  And yet on the other hand you have a key ingredient that allows for this tenacity to actually HAVE it’s positive out come.

So to reach your goals and realize your dreams you need persistence to keeps your wheels spinning, but it’s flexibility and constant analysis that will take you where you want to go.

“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence.  The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” ~Denis Waitley

“Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.” ~Anthony J. D’Angelo

Where do you see yourself in all of this?

Do you struggle to keep your wheels spinning?  Or do you keep pushing forward, but find yourself too rigid to make the necessary adjustments on the fly?  Or have you found the perfect balance of drive and adjustment that have led to great success in life?  And if so, what have you found that works for you?