Effective Ways to Become Persistent

Most of your life, you’ve been taught lessons about the value of persistence. You learned it from the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. In the story, the turtle moves slowly but persistently toward the finish line while the rabbit, though fast, doesn’t. The moral of the story is that being persistent is a lot more valuable than being fast.

  • Know What You Want – The only way to succeed in life is to know what you want out of it. Whatever goal you want to work on knowing what the end looks like. Then you can map your way to success and create the steps you need to make it.
  • Set Clear SMART Goals – When you know what you want, translate it into goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. By doing this, you know if you are succeeding by looking at the metrics.
  • Find Out What Motivates You – Once you have set the goals you need to find out what motivates you to stick to something. For some people it’s knowing “why” but for others, it’s just knowing the steps they need to take each day to get there.
  • Determine the Steps to Success – Now that you know what the end looks like, go back in your calendar from the date you want to be done with this to today. Add the steps to your schedule.
  • Follow the Steps –Now that you know what you need to do each day to reach success, do it. Think of only thing else but getting those limited things done each day. Hopefully, you did not make each day too hard. Remember, being realistic is critical.
  • Be Disciplined to Do the Steps to Build a Habit – So that you can build a habit, just follow the steps each day. If you’ve made it easy for yourself, it won’t be that hard. For example, if you want to lose 10 lbs. don’t try to lose them all in a month. Instead, focus on eating less so you can lose 1 pound at a time.
  • It’s Okay to Be the Turtle – Remember the story of the tortoise. You don’t have to do things the fastest to be the best. You don’t have to finish first to be a winner. In fact, you’re more likely to succeed if you just remain persistent even if you’re slow.
  • Stay Positive – Part of persistence is the ability to remain positive if you have a small set back. For example, if a branch gets in your way, find a way to go around it. If you get sick, don’t give up, get well, then carry on.

Most people stop before they reach their goals. Whether the goal is a college degree, weight loss, or starting a business, the people who are persistent are the ones who succeed. You can have tons of talent, but if you’re not willing to go after what you want with full determination it won’t happen. Be one of the few who succeed.