The One Human Trait You Need To Commit To If You Want To Do Big Things.
By the end of this year, there will be thousands more startups created.
By the end of this year, there will be heaps more talented people that make it onto one of those talent shows and that we never hear from again.
By the end of this year, there will be more books available on Amazon that never get read or even talked about — ever.
The people in each of these fields don’t go on to do big things not because they lack talent, money, education or the right ideas.
People fail to do big things because they lack persistence
The simple act of starting, failing, starting again, pivoting slightly, failing and repeating this process over and over is what separates those who do big things and those who don’t.
The differentiator is in your ability for things to not go as planned and for you to keep moving forward. It’s so easy to give up at the first obstacle. Starting a business, for example, is incredibly hard.
You may have the right product but not raise enough capital.
You may have enough capital for your business and not hire the right talent.
You may hire the best people in the world but if you can’t pay them, then they can’t eat and will probably leave.
Change the story in your head.
Whatever your goal is, the act of persistence is what most people lack. Being persistent is about having a different conversation with yourself.
Instead of saying to yourself “This is why I can’t go on” or “This is proof that I’m not going to make it,” change the story to “This didn’t work out and that means I have to keep going and learn from the obstacle that’s in my way.”
Change the story to “This didn’t go as planned and that’s part of the learning process.”
Persistence comes down to the meaning you assign each failure and obstacle you encounter. People who are persistent have a different meaning when it comes to the lows.
Without things going against you, you’ll never build the willpower to do something that no one else has done or achieved. That’s the whole point of doing big things — big things are really hard to do and it’s what makes the whole process worth it when you finally reach your goal.
The stupid thing is you will get there.
I’ve never met anyone who is incredibly persistent and hasn’t reached their big goals eventually.
Whether you will make it or not is not the question. The question is always whether you will keep trying and having a crack.
“If we were only told that we would eventually achieve whatever goal we set out to accomplish, then we’d stop giving up halfway”
When I reflect on my own career, I can see clearly that the cool things I achieved were because of persistence. Even when everyone told me to give up or try something else, I didn’t. I took the hard option.
I went on more than 50 dates in 3 months.
I interviewed for more than 20 companies within a few months.
I wrote more than 400 articles online even though people told me I couldn’t write.
It’s only because of the persistence in each of these areas of my life that I’ve been able to hit my goals. From the outside, people think I was born a winner — I wasn’t.
It’s the differentiator.
I kept persisting because I knew it was the only trait that would separate me from everybody else and allow me to inspire millions of people online at some point.
I learned by reading the biographies of many celebrities, authors, presidents and CEO’s that they all shared one trait — persistence.
When you disconnect from the highlight reel of your heroes and see what they actually went through, you realize that these high-achievers went through hell and back.
In many cases, the people you admire have less skill, education, ideas and emotional intelligence than you might have.
I’ve been completely shocked by how simple and normal many of the so-called idols of modern culture are when I’ve been lucky to meet a few of them.
People hate hearing about persistence.
That’s what I’ve learned.
“People don’t like hearing what I’ve just written because it sucks”
It’s straightforward advice that anyone can follow yet so few do. We want to believe there’s something more or we’re just not special enough. The brutal truth is you are special enough. You can be persistent just like anybody else.
It’s going to take a crapload of work and you may find the process challenging.
What I’ve learned is what starts out as being difficult becomes fun later on when you figure out the game and just how important persistence is.
We hate hearing about persistence because we don’t want to face the facts: It’s our lack of discipline that is the real issue.
Waking up early to write blog posts sucks.
Coming home from work and then pushing out another 3 hours of content sucks.
Giving up Netflix time to read books and learn new skills sucks.
If that’s the mindset we settle for then one day we could also end up deciding that living is too hard as well and it would be easier to be dead.
That may sound drastic, but that’s how fatal the mind’s thoughts can be if we don’t cultivate discipline in some form and persist.
So, next time, what are you going to do?
The only answer to that question is to persist. Go through it all again. Try a thousand other ways that don’t work.
Roll up to another meeting and get rejected. Whatever you do, don’t stop trying. Change your idea. Try a different approach. Just make sure you persist with something that matters to you.
Pursue something bigger than yourself with nothing but persistence, and then you’ll do big things.
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