Persistence: The Key to Success

A therapist friend once pointed out that many people frequently devoted themselves to a new project only 75% or followed a path only three quarters of the way, and then quit, never waiting long enough to see anything through to the finish.  This is not uncommon and it is referred to by 12-step members as, “Quitting before the miracle”.

People often enjoy the beginning of everything.  The excitement of a new project, a new town, a new place to live is exhilarating.   It gives us a tremendous amount of energy. 

Starting is easy; it’s staying with something that is hard. Not seeing something through results in a multitude of unfinished business.  Half-baked ideas and projects lie around defeated by the specter of impatience.  We envy others who have completed major works, who have stuck with something long enough to see improvement and some level of success. We want success to sneak up on us and surprise us while we’re not looking.

Alas, success doesn’t work that way. Thank goodness it doesn’t, because without the hard work and sense of accomplishment from something well done, success wouldn’t be worthwhile.  It would simply be another empty shell of something which only resembled happiness.

According to Thomas Edison, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”  This simple formula is what many of us miss in our pursuit of success.  In the idea phase of any project or undertaking, we find ourselves full of inspiration, and passion to begin something new.  It is akin to the romantic phase of a relationship, where everything is seen through rose-colored glasses--full of hope and promise. 

In a new venture, we are in love with our ideas and visions of the future.  Our expectations runs high.  We think that this new phase of our life will somehow transform us beyond our current limited state, that it will lift us up to soar to new heights of being.  It will and it does, but not to the level that our minds think that it will.

Reality sets in.  All of our old habits are still there, our bodies look the same, and we don’t feel exhilarated at every turn like we thought we would.  But that’s okay.  No one can burn at that high rate for too long, or we’d burn out. 

For many of us, we usually give up on something when we get discouraged, or see too many obstacles to overcome.  We assume we've somehow made the wrong choice, and that there is a better one right around the corner.  So we spend more time looking for new and better places and situations than we do investing in the situation that is at hand.

Life is a cycle of highs and lows, ups and downs.  Inspiration is a necessary aspect of any project, but as Edison well knew, it is only a very small part of it.  Edison spent endless hours doing thousands of experiments before he got an invention right.  Anyone who has achieved any degree of success knows that it is the willingness to see something through which leads one to the realm of success.

Sticking with something is the key to success.  Hanging in there when the going gets tough—that’s what makes the difference.  Perhaps if we knew how hard something was going to be, how long it would take or how many obstacles we’d meet along the way, we’d never even begin.  But good ideas are hard to ignore.  There is something in the human mind that needs to express itself.  It is that tremendous need to create and make a contribution which leads to all of the myriad of new inventions and information flooding our lives everyday.

In his book, Mastery, George Leonard examines the process one goes through to master a new set of skills.  It is a process of ebbs and flows which he dubs, “The Mastery Curve”.  He writes, “Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it.”   It is the long plateaus of seemingly no progress, which lead many people to give up.  They get bored or frustrated and therefore, are no longer inclined to continue along the road to true mastery.  Instead, they settle.  Satisfied that they’ve put in enough effort, they simply rest on the little bit of success they’ve achieved.

But true success or true mastery means an all or nothing approach.  It means going all the way with something, continually improving, continually innovating, and continually practicing without end.  The result is that you’ve not only mastered something, but you’ve succeeded in achieving a goal.  This requires persistence, patience, and a passion for the process.  In other words, you’ve got to love what you’re doing or you’ll never be able to make it through the rough spots.  As Leonard puts it, “You practice diligently but you practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself.”  

When you give something your “all”, you are rewarded in kind with the gift of self-fulfillment.  There are few things in this world that are worth more than that.  In all of your striving, and forward-thinking motions, what keeps you sane is that you finally feel as though you are on the right track.  It is as though this path has been there all along and you’ve finally found it. Success has a price.  It takes guts, perseverance and a strong vision.  It takes an unfailing belief in oneself, and in one’s ability to beat the odds.  It takes a willingness to keep going no matter how hard or bumpy the road becomes or how many detours crop up along the way.    The price tag is big, but the rewards are even bigger. And getting there is half the fun.

It’s like coming home.  Suddenly all other roads look foreign, and you cannot imagine doing anything else, and you wonder how you put up with the detours and wrong directions for so long.  But now you’re on your way and no matter what happens, you know you’ve found you’re way.  It is an eternal flame that resides within you that you carry forever in your heart.