"She Just Won't Quit!"

As the end of June approached, I watched in delight and amazement as my wife worked feverishly to finish the goal that she had set for herself. June is the year-end month for her company.

She fell just slightly short of her personally set goal but was in great spirits. She continued to speak of what she actually did accomplish even though the ultimate goal was not reached. Her persistence is amazing! She has already begun the new business year with a work ethic that would fill others with envy.

She didn’t quit, offer excuses as to why she fell short, whine, or blame others for her missed opportunity. SHE REMAINED PERSISTENT!

If you really want to be successful, you probably spend a lot of time reading motivational books and articles because you want to know what qualities are required for success. After reading through the long lists of how to, there is a short sentence that tells us if we really want to be successful, we must have persistence.

Onetime Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said, "Persistence is the hard work you do after you're tired of all the hard work you've already done." Well said. Persistence means, simply, refusing to give up - but especially when faced with difficulty or opposition. It is the quality of never giving up when we encounter challenges. It is holding on to our dream. Of refusing to be discouraged no matter what the odds, no matter what happens.

We are even told that the reason they are successful today is because they were persistent. They persevered in chasing their dream, no matter what happened. When success gurus and other successful people tell you that they got to where they are today because they were persistent, they are actually leaving out a very important part of the story. And the part that they are leaving out is this: They forget to tell you that before they were persistent, they had a goal, and they had a plan on how to get there. All along the way, after every step they took, they stepped back to evaluate the results to see if the results they were getting were the results they wanted. If they weren’t getting the results they wanted, then they would change the steps they took.

These successful people did have persistence, but they were only persistent about holding on to their vision. They were never persistent about the method they took to get to their goal. All along the way, they were prepared to be very flexible and experiment to see what techniques and strategies worked best to get where they wanted to go.

People who admire persistence often use the example of Thomas Edison who kept trying to produce an electrical light bulb even after ten thousand failed attempts. But people often forget that while Thomas Edison was persistent in believing in his goal, he was not persistent in the way he tried to achieve it. Thomas Edison did not repeat the same experiment over and over again ten thousand times. Thomas Edison performed about ten thousand different experiments on his way to trying to find a practical electrical light bulb.

Every time he tried an experiment to produce an electric light bulb, he then backed up and took some time to evaluate the results. He figured out what was working and what wasn’t working. Then he would try something different the next time. And he would keep track of the results.
So, remember this crucial difference the next time someone tries to tell you that persistence is the key to success.

Honey, your persistence is an example to all! 

Blessed,

Dr. Tim