Achieving success in life no matter how one may define what successful is will always be dependent on being persistent. A river cuts through a rock, not because of the power of the river, but from the persistence of the river on the rock. No matter what your success goals are, be it in business, sports or even family life, being persistent will always play an important role.
Being persistent is defined as continuing to move on with whatever goal has been planned even though an external event or initial losses may have slowed down, or temporarily halted a person while she’s on her way in her trip towards achieving her goals in life.
Look no further than the career of Professional Football quarterback Gino Smith with the Seattle Seahawks. Smith has been in the professional ranks since 2013 and has been with three professional teams before he signed with Seattle.
According to Gino, even though he didn’t get the opportunity to start in the game that many times, he prepared every day, every week as if he would start. His motto was that no one would out work him. There’s a quote by legendary basketball coach John Wooden that says
“When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” Gino Smith proved that to be true.
In all aspects of life, there will always be challenges that will be ahead of anyone who has planned a success road map. There will be hurdles, humps and disappointments along the way and the only way to cut short the journey towards the end of the map is if the person traveling that success road map has decided to stop, change directions or even turn back to square one. You don’t fail until you give up.
In order to determine how persistent a person is in the pursuit of success, he needs to know what drives him towards success. Monetary rewards alone at the end of the journey do not necessarily guarantee that the journey will be successful. Money may not be a strong enough motivator but it certainly is one of the rewards. It takes some folks many years of persistent effort to become an overnight success. All we see is the success… not all the trials and tribulations faced along the journey.
The commitment to finish a task or a goal is kept afloat by passion and drive. While this trait is intangible, it’s a trait that is available for free to anybody. The drive for material rewards comes in second to passion and drive and only serves as a bonus once success is achieved.
If the goals or objectives are worth all the risk, the time and the effort, this already justifies the reason to be committed. Sometimes being committed justifies the passion and the drive and sometimes the passion and drive justify (and create) the commitment.
Discover your passion and realize the drive and commitment which will fuel the effort. Keep moving forward and believe in your goal.
