The Power Of Persistence in What You Love

"There is no giant step that does it. It's a lot of little steps" Anonymous

A story is told of a man who loved soda so much that he went into business of producing and selling soda drinks and called his product Soda 3up. The business failed and a after a while he started another soda business again and this time changed his product name to 4up. The product penetrated the market and sold some but then, the business failed after sometime. But the man still loved soda so much, so he started again and this time called his product 5up. Again, due to market changes, the business failed just as the previous ones. He was motivated to still try again and then started a new firm and still sold soda calling it this time 6up. the business flourished for a while and then failed too. He simply gave up. Few years later, another person came with a firm selling soda and called its name 7up. It became a run away hit product and the rest, they say, is history.

Most successful goals are realized after about several attempts at achieving them. So there is always need for persistent pursuit. The reason why most people give up too soon is because they do not really love what they are doing. If your primary and only motive for getting involved in anything is the money, then you are not likely to make it through the storm. For instance, I have friends who were stock experts before the global financial melt down. They now rather sell or talk about anything else than shares. It seems to me they were only there because of the huge buying, selling and switching commissions that were rolling in at the boom. Some of my banker friends now tell me "banking is not fun again, if you have something better just let me know". During times of change, stars emerge especially because of their passion for the trade and the hope of survival - not necessarily the desire to make it big - though they usually end up making it to the top, after the storm. This is because they decided to try it just one more time in another way. Helen Keller once said that the worst thing to happen to a man is not the loss of his eyesight, but to have eyes and lack vision. Vision is what makes you see beyond what is happening now. You can see the light ahead of the dark tunnel so you persist knowing that the heat won't last too long. I heard of a boxer whose coach told him if he could just endure enough to  take Tyson's punches beyond the fifth round he'd win the fight, and he did.

Most worthwhile generational impacting dreams in history took at least 10years from start to fruition. The reason most people fail is not because they lack vision, but because they lack the staying power - PERSISTENCE. Many people are always on the same goal but only one gets the credit - the person who persists to the end. Thomas Edison did not originate the research on a electric bulb, he even only bought the patent to the original work and continued from where the originator left off. It took him another 10,000 experiments to arrive at the solution, and he did not just persist, but was willing to persist for as long as possible, according to Napoleon Hill's report. As a teenager Abraham Lincoln had a foresight and passion in what he wanted to achieve in spite of his academic deficiency, career confusion and several political attempts in futility. Today, he is celebrated as one of the most accomplished American presidents in history.

To regain momentum for your dreams through persistence take the following steps:

1. Ask yourself if you truly have passion for what you are presently doing - can you do it even when there is no money to show? Can you do it for free? How do you feel when people say anything negative about what you do or the business in general? How much time do you spend on it daily? Who are your role models/mentors doing the same thing and successful at it?
2. Decide if you need to continue in your present career or change and apply your energy in something else you are more passionate about.
3. Write a personal mission statement of what you want to achieve in short, medium and long terms spanning from 90days to 20 years
4. Plan, plan, re-plan and write down your plans with time lines allocated.
5. Take immediate action steps in daily routines and keep the vision in view when confronted with setbacks.
6. Learn your game and constantly improve on whatever it is you are doing. Get better by challenging yourself
7. When faced with difficult times, retreat, reinforce and attack from a different direction. This could mean changing so many things including your particular job, business or product as most people realize late that they were not really passionate about their duty.
8. Be careful about making major changes that can impact negatively on your loved ones. Do not suddenly jump off your job into business unless you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. People who are used to pay cheques think and live differently from business people. They both can be successfull depending on their vission.
9. .Persistence Of Vision is the key to realizing anything you dream of, so stay motivated to make the next move every single day