The winters in Wyoming are long and harsh. The ranch where I grew up was near the base of Laramie Peak and a great deal of my life revolved around stacking fresh hay in the warm months so we could load it onto a pickup truck in the cold and snowy months to feed our cattle.
My life changed dramatically when I entered the FBI Academy at Quantico. The focus was on building upper body strength, again—only this time, instead of stacking bales of hay it was the pushups that were required to graduate from the Academy. My coach told me to “kiss the ground I walked on” if I expected him to “count” my pushup. Although I had grown up throwing around 50 pound bales of hay, I had a difficult time mustering the strength to do a pushup that counted in the eyes of my coach.
I questioned how gutting out the perfect push-up was going to make me a better investigator or make it easier to find foreign spies.
But there was no choice; every day at the FBI Academy involved some kind of physical activity. I entered the FBI Academy quite confident in my physical abilities. On the very first day, I found myself compared with other new agents who were far more talented, not only in physical fitness but in other categories as well.
My environment had drastically changed. The people who were now my colleagues represented the cream of the crop. I was not as talented as many of the other new agents but that did not matter. I had to look hard and deep to find qualities in which I excelled but I was determined to succeed. I would not give up. I would learn to survive in this new environment in which I found myself.
Giving up is easy. Anyone can do that. When you do, you surrender. You fall down because others wore you down with their constant message that you won’t succeed.
Persistence is continuing to move ahead even when life hasn’t thrown you a perfect hand (click to tweet). It is the deliberate action of doing something again and again until you get it right. And then maybe doing it again after that, too. If you can dig deep and find the discipline to persist, you can harness a power that is has unlimited potential.
Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius cannot make you successful; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Persistence and determination alone will keep you moving ahead when your circumstances and environment has changed (click to tweet).
I straightened my back at the FBI Academy and dug deeper. A strong mind is not built on something that is slapped together on a shallow foundation. It needs solid rock—like a skyscraper, the higher you want to go, the deeper your foundation must go.
Many of our most important goals require persistence if we want to achieve them. I learned that there are ways to increase persistence—and here are some of the techniques that helped me:
1. Face your problems head on. It isn’t your problems that define you—it’s how you react and recover from them. Your problems are not going away unless you do something about them.
2. Be honest with yourself. Be honest about what you want to achieve, who you want to become, and the obstacles that are preventing you from achieving your goals. Be honest with every aspect of your life because you are the one person who always has your best interests at heart.
3. Start being yourself. Trying to be someone else is a waste of time. Embrace the unique person you were created to be that has beauty, ideas, and strengths like no one else. Be the best version of you.
4. Define Your Goal as Behavior. Identify the specific steps you need to take to achieve your goal. Define your goal in terms of behavior.
5. Take Small Steps. If you start with small goals, it will be easier to move up to bigger goals as you move forward.
6. Organize Your Day. Once you’ve set your goal, it must become a priority. This is often where weak wills meet rubber roads. Wishing for something to happen won’t make it happen. Reorganize your day so that you have time to make your goal a reality.
7. Watch for Excuses. Persistence is getting yourself to do something you don’t necessary want to do. Don’t give yourself permission to come up an excuse to avoid working toward your goal.
8. Remember the Reasons You Want to Reach Your Goal. When you feel your determination begin to waver, remember the reason you want to accomplish your goal.
9. Develop a Habit. Getting into a routine is very important. There will be many times when you feel as though you’ve made no progress, but remember it’s important to not give in. In my book, “Secrets of a Strong Mind,” I talk how about the steps necessary to build habits that will lead you toward doing what you need to do to reach your goal.
Every day I kept at it, making a little progress at a time. Eventually, I could do the thirty-five pushups needed to pass the physical fitness requirements at the Academy. In retrospect, I have to say that my lesson in pushups was one of the most valuable I learned in my training: persistence is the key to unlocking life’s obstacles. Instead of seeing them as threats, they are simply challenges to be met.
What has been one of your most important lessons in learning the value of persistence? How has persistence made a difference in your life? Can you think of times when you wished you’d stuck with something and been more persistent? How would your life be different?
Read my book ““Secrets of a Strong Mind,” available now on Amazon.
You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LaRaeQuy
The post 9 Effective Ways to Become More Persistent appeared first on Empower the Leader in You.