The moment between your breakthrough and massive failure is a large stone which you have to push away for success to be achieved. Push it, don’t quit and success will be yours for the taking.
Once upon a time there was a king in ancient Israel who had many adversaries who sought to kill him and take over his kingdom. One day this king sought to consult the prophet for help.
The prophet told him to carry a bow and an arrow and strike the ground, the king took the arrow and struck the ground three times (to him that was okay to strike blow) then stopped, but this made the prophet angry so much the prophet told the king that he would have struck the ground like four or five times.
By this he would have utterly destroyed his enemies but now he would only be able to win his enemies only three times. The king quit at the very moment he would have enjoyed victory.
Now how does this story apply to the subject of Perseverance?
You know we all as human beings have visions, goals and accomplishments, we have our targets in life but one thing we must never fail to have is the willingness, the drive, that push that is able to propel us to that destination that we want to reach.
From the story the king struck the ground but he lacked the hunger, drive and zeal to utterly destroy his enemies and right at the brink of totally destroying his enemies he quit, if we in life, like the king, never have that willingness to persevere through life’s challenges we will never rise to the top.
Thomas Edison the famous inventor said, “Life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Another goes like this, “It is the last step of the race that counts, success or failure is determined by the last step.”
The king of Israel just remained with one more strike to utterly destroy his enemies then he gave up.
Perseverance is the life blood of any success in life.
Perseverance fuels talent, vision or any other thing for the journey a man is willing to embark on.
Without perseverance life is not worth it in the least.
Someone said, “Life is useless until a man finds what he is willing to die for.”
The truth is where each and every man is as a result of our perseverance or someone’s perseverance. Independence is won by the willingness to persevere, people’s willingness to hold the bull by the horn and not let go until the bull is conquered, even if the bull wounds them.
Now the question I would ask you is what are the hindrances to perseverance?
Napoleon Hill once said that, “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”
REASONS PERSERVERANCE IS NOT DEVELOPED
One of the main reasons why people lack perseverance is that they quit too soon just like we saw in the story of that ancient Israeli king. So let’s look at some other few.
- Lack of Vision: Someone once said, “Weak desires bring about weak results.” When you don’t have a clear picture in your mind, you cannot expect to persevere to the end. Lack of clarity only leads to a broken heart. When you know what you want, you can go to any length to achieve it. I believe if the king in our story had a clear vision of what victory he wanted he would have stricken the ground even nine or ten times, but he lacked vision and that cost him big time.
- Lack of Purpose: We might have a clear vision but if we do not know why we have that vision the failure will become inevitable. Now looking at that story, the king was instructed to strike the ground. What for? The king did not answer that question in his mind; he had no idea why he was striking that ground, and that hindered his perseverance to keep at it. Robert Kiyosaki has this to say “Without the strongest WHY even the most simple HOW becomes very hard”.
- A Life Style of Giving Up: John Maxwell said, “Giving up when adversity threatens can make a person bitter but only perseverance can make a person better.” Giving up simply means surrendering. Not necessarily because the authority is greater than yours but because of laziness or lack of zeal or even lack of purpose. Many people give up not because circumstances are way more than them but because each and every day they are looking for reasons why they should not grow, they have developed a life style but that says “When the going gets tough you quit.” But no, when the going gets tough only the tough get going.
NOW, HOW DO YOU DEVELOP PERSEVERANCE?
I developed an acronym from a book I read which has been helping me and I am sure it will help you too. It is called FEED. Let’s look at what FEED is.
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F = Find Purpose.
A famous coach said, “Perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose.” When you know where you are going and you know why, going there becomes the least of your problems.
For you to develop perseverance you must first clarify your purpose.
Perseverance is like your shock absorber in the car, it is what keeps the car steady when it hits the curve, but the car has to be going somewhere.
Know your purpose and the perseverance to reach your goal will automatically come.
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E = Eliminate Excuses.
Napoleon Hill says, “Success needs no explanations. Failure permits no alibis.”
A successful person does not look for reasons why he should not wake up early in the morning.
To develop that force in you, you have to stand up and make a decision to be successful no matter what you situation is, what people will say or even what you will say, that is where perseverance is born because as long as you are not willing to start the car (your life) the car will remain static.
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E = Eliminate Wrong Relationships.
People lack the zeal or energy to move because they have the wrong people around them.
The formation of our thoughts is from what we see and hear basically. If you have wrong people around you, they induce in you a high sense of unwillingness to succeed in life.
So you need to get the right people around you who are ready to pump that resilient spirit into you.
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D = Develop Stamina.
Like I wrote before, you might get every other thing right but this last one if not in place, grave consequences are bound to be reaped.
You must develop stamina. “BOUNCE-BACK ABILITY” so to speak.
When a tree is planted it takes more than just breeze to up root it from the ground.
When we develop stamina we are saying that no matter what, we are going to get there. And even if we don’t, we are going to be near there.
Someone said, “Aim from the sun so that even if you don’t reach the sun you would have passed the moon.”
Develop that will. Plant your foot deep down where the ground is solid (the other three points) and see yourself develop perseverance to succeed in life.
Burn all the bridges to retreat (excuses) from your life that will hinder your progress and move with passion, zeal and willingness and see that accomplishing your goal will be the easiest thing for you to do.
Of these four things, which would you do first?
This post has been generously written by my friend, Sesugh ‘Carver’ Samuel. Say thanks to him on Facebook
