8 Ways To Develop Persistence

Source: http://www.ryanwhiteside.com/develop-persistence.html




One of the greatest keys to success is persistence. So many people quit in this world moments away from when they would achieve a breakthrough.
You may not realize it, but I bet this has happened to you at least once in your life. You were probably so close to accomplishing what you set out to do, but fell short because you quit at the last moment.
The best story of persistence that I know comes from Thomas Edison. He failed over a thousand times before finally perfecting the light bulb.
Having the persistence to go after what you truly desire can get you many of the things that, up to this point, have only dreamed of.
The following is eight ways that you can build up your persistence. Read this list. And remember these ideas the next time you find yourself giving up on a goal that you really want to achieve…

1. Knowing What You Want

It’s pretty simple. If you don’t know what it is you want, there is no reason to read the rest of this page. Come back at a later time when this article will be of more use to you.
To have anything great in this world, you must know exactly what it is you want.
Perhaps you want to be the CEO of your company. If that is the case, don’t let a day go by where you aren’t constantly thinking about becoming the CEO.
If you want a million dollars, picture in your mind you checking your bank account and seeing one million dollars.
If you aren’t sure what you want most, the time to start deciding is right now! Search for as long as you need to until you find exactly what it is that you most want in life.
Spend the next few days, weeks, and even months if you have to. Because…
You can’t get anywhere great in life unless you know where you are going.

Know what it is you want. Because if you are aiming at the right goal, you will have plenty of persistence. Especially if you combine that with…

2. Having A Burning Desire

Make sure that you have a goal that you want really badly. It has to be something that you would absolutely destroy everything in your path to achieve!
If you have something that is that meaningful to you, it will be very easy for you to be persistent.
Think hard. I’m sure there is something out there that you want really badly. Whatever it may be, the more desire you have, the more you will stick with it when the going gets tough.

3. Believe In Your Own Abilities

Fear is the ultimate killer of persistence. To avoid fear, you must have confidence in yourself and your abilities.
After all, if you aren’t confident in yourself, nobody else will!
I have to admit, I have struggled with confidence in myself over the years. Especially when it came to starting this site. Here are just a few things that constantly went through my mind when I first started this site…

• there are better writers than me out there
• they are much smarter
• I will never have the time to make it work

It was hard for me to get going until I realized this…
The only limitations you have are the one’s that you put on yourself.

I figured out that none of these things were really true. I had and always will have the ability if I set my mind to it. I can get past any competitors I may have by simply outworking them.

If you get stuck in having a negative mindset, ask yourself this, “Maybe these thoughts aren’t true. Maybe I do have what it takes.”

I promise that if you put enough time and effort into anything, you will be able to do anything that your heart desires. Have confidence in yourself. And your persistence level will go way up!

4. Having Organized Plans

This is a very underrated part of persistence. If you want to have the ability to stick with a goal, you must have at least a basic outline of how you are going to get there.
When you get side-tracked, reevaluating your plans can help get you back and headed in the right direction.
If you haven’t yet, take a look at the biggest goal you want to achieve. What steps do you plan on taking to get you there? What mini-goals do you have to achieve that will help guide you to your ultimate goal?
The more organized you are in your plans, the more confidence you will have in them. Speaking of which…

5. Confidence In Your Plans

What is the point of having detailed plans to reach your goal if you don’t think those plans will work?
If there is even a 1% doubt in your mind that your plans won’t work, modify them until you have complete confidence.
This happened to me with one of my previous sites. I had a plan of writing one new page every single day. Now, this might sound good and all but it didn’t work out. Here’s why…
I figured out that my writing was getting worse and worse because all I was doing was writing as quickly as possible so I could finish a page and be done for the day. I realized I needed to modify my plans.
So instead, I had a goal of writing 1000 words per day. This took the pressure off from having to complete a page. If it was a long article, I could finish it the next day if I had reached my word limit.
The articles I was producing started to be much better and my site began to receive much more traffic.
I’m asking you to constantly look at and update your plans if you feel the need to. Your persistence will absolutely crumble if you have any lack of confidence in your plans.

6. Help From Others

Once again, another overlooked factor in persistence. Sometimes you need a confidence boost from others. Whether it be someone you look to for advice. Or perhaps you just need someone to listen.
Don’t try to get through everything on your own.
This site is filled with confidence boosters if you need it. But don’t stop there. Having people in your life that you can turn to for advice is incredibly important. Especially if it is someone who has been in a similar situation as you and came out on top.
Have conversations with people that are higher up in your company. They probably went through very similar situations that you are going through right now.
Persistence is something that you must fight with sometimes. And having a mentor and help from others can help you with that fight.

7. Willpower

Sometimes you need help from others. And sometimes you just need to suck it up and get through it!
Willpower is something that I struggle with everyday. You must have somewhere to turn to for constant inspiration. For me, I can always turn to my journal.
My journal is filled with motivating stuff that I have picked up from hundreds of books that I have read. All I need to do is read a few pages and my batteries instantly start to get recharged.
I recommend that you carry around with you at least a page or two of quotes or thoughts that you find inspiring. If you get down about something, you can pull out this sheet of paper and re-energize yourself.
If you need a place to start, try going to Google and typing in “jim rohn quotes.” Quite frankly, nobody explains things as well as Jim does. You might even want to pick up his Treasury Of Quotes at Amazon. It’s worth every penny!

8. Improve Your Habits

Ahh, of course. I had to throw in one of my favorite things to talk about. It is so valuable…
Getting into good daily habits makes becoming persistent almost automatic!
Take a good hard look at what you do everyday. Start eliminating some of the bad things you find yourself doing every day. The things which waste your time and make your days less useful.
Start adding things to your day that will help you reach your goals faster. Think about it this way…
If you do twice as much work as you are currently doing now, you will reach your goals twice as quickly.

Think about that the next time you are thinking about your big goals. If you want to achieve them quicker, start doing twice as much.

It’s really not that hard to work hard once you get in the habit of doing so. When it’s habit, you won’t think twice about doing some of the things that you dread doing now.

If you want lifelong persistence, practice these eight things and you will travel on a straight path toward reaching your goals