Increase Your Persistence

Persistence is the process of working diligently towards achieving your goal until it is done. It is a tool that will help you to get positive momentum, overcome obstacles, get an edge over others who can't persist, and ultimately get more power and love in your life.

So how do you persist? Well here are some tools to help you out:

Lean into Your Goal

If you try to kick a bowling ball across the floor, it will probably not move much, and your foot will probably not be much fun to move. But if you press the sole of your shoe on the bowling ball and give it a slow but steady nudge, it is going to move, and it’s going to move with much more power. The same is true for achieving your goals. You can’t always accomplish your goal with a single, intense spurt of energy. Often, you simply have to apply pressure and lean into your goal with a steady persistence that builds momentum.

Build a Strong Foundation

Building a strong foundation will help you to persist by giving you more ground to stand on. It’s hard to persist if you aren’t making any progress or if you don’t have other things taken care of in your life. (Hey Maslow, quit playing on that pyramid!)

Create a Burning Need

It will be difficult to persist in something if you don’t have enough desire to do so. Increase your desire by making your goal something you need to do, rather than something you merely desire to do. You can do this in several ways (see my article on creating a burning need) but one of the most effective ways, for me, is to set an outrageously high goal (or life purpose) for myself that really motivates me to persist. Choose a goal that you want so badly that you would easily spend an entire lifetime of pain in order to achieve it. You can also delay gratification and only give yourself things that you want when your goal has been accomplished. (Would you like some will power with that?)

Have Faith

Have faith that you will accomplish your goal. Faith is an emotion that will keep you going through the hard times. (the obstacles and challenges) You can create this emotion by imagining what it will be like if you have already persisted and achieved your goal. Imagine yourself meeting challenges and obstacles with a smile on your face and a determination in your eye. You can easily handle anything because you are determined to achieve your goal and really have a burning need. You can also say things to yourself like: “I am persistent” and “I will persist,” which will also influence your self image to help you in all areas of your life.

Start Gradually

Just like when driving a car (or pushing a bowling ball with your foot), you can save energy by accelerating gradually, as opposed to putting the pedal to the metal or doing a “jackrabbit” start. The least amount of energy is expended when you start gradually. Starting gradually is also a great way to help you persist because there are often many things that need to be shifted and moved around in your life before you can actually get up to the speed you would like to get to. An example of this is when you are starting college or a new class in high school. It takes time for you to get to know the teacher, how they teach and how they grade your work before you can really get into the flow of the class and be excellent in it. It is also much easier to keep going with the class (persisting) once you have “adjusted”. The opposite is also true. If you try to put the petal to the metal, and take way to many classes or choose the most difficult classes right when you start, then you will be much more likely to quit.

Now go out there, know what you want and persist towards it's achievement and you will be unstoppable!