The Power of Learning from DAD

Lesson 10 – Persistence – Part 1

Persistence is required to turn desires into results. This is because, as we have seen in Lesson 9 on Planning, most people are willing to give up their aim or purpose at the first sign of temporary defeat. It is only those few who carry on despite all opposition, those who persist, who will achieve their goals. In this lesson we take a deep dive into persistence, covering first, what persistence is and second, how persistence can be developed.

How can you persist in the face of temporary defeat? There is a cluster of attitudes and perspective that help to build persistence. For example, starting out with a strong desire is important, as the starting point of all achievement is a burning desire. As weak desire brings weak results, the attitude of persistence is strengthened by strong desire. If you find yourself lacking in persistence, try focusing on your desires and your purpose to reignite your passion. Passion will support you to push through temporary defeats. In finding your passions you find persistence.

An understanding of how success works also supports us to persist in the face of temporary defeat. So how does success work? It is important to realise that success is not something that you are born into, success is something that you attract through your attitudes and behaviours. This is true irrespective of your starting point. Whatsoever our starting point, we each have more than enough through the mental faculties with which we are all naturally endowed to capitalise on opportunities to attract success through our efforts. No circumstance precludes the ability to succeed, as no circumstance is a match for the minds for which we are naturally endowed. Success is a result of you, what you do, and sits quite independently of the circumstances you were born into or the environment that you are in now. With this knowledge comes the awareness that failure in or obstruction to your organised plans really is just temporary defeat; by continuing to try new things and developing the right attitudes, success will be attracted to you. That is simply how success works. In the face of temporary defeat, remember that wherever you are now, through your efforts in action and in attitude, you can change your circumstances and arrive at your goals.

It should be emphasized that the key to attracting success is found in your thinking processes, as many have said: you become what you think about. The choice we make of the thoughts we entertain can greatly impact whether success is maintained or lost. To support persistence, it is important therefore to be mindful of our thoughts, and more will be said about this activity of internalising and emotionalising thoughts conducive to success in subsequent lessons. Here, the point is only that a full understanding of success enables us to persist through defeat.

To sum up the insights from this lesson: with persistence no matter how slowly, you know that success will come. By understanding the nature of success, you know that you are responsible, and you are taking certain steps, every day and etching closer towards your goal. As you progress you will hit many roadblocks but through passion and awareness of the principles of success creation, you will persist through those temporary defeats, turning obstacles into opportunities.

Lesson 10 – Persistence – Part 2

People who persist, who do not accept temporary defeat as a final destination, are the ones that succeed. The key to persistence is to never give up in the face of discouragement, understanding as Churchill said: “failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Persistence is a state of mind and like all other states of mind; it can be strengthened through use. The more we keep going after temporary defeat, the more we build this muscle of persistence. Musicians are a prime example of persistence in practice. For a long period of time musicians must push through ostensibly poor performance as they exponentially grow in their knowledge of their chosen instrument. To put it more bluntly, initially most musicians sound bad but they must continue in order to ever sound good. No single musician has become successful without persistence. Indeed, those musicians that are now successful are not necessarily the best musically, they are simply the ones who did not give up in the face of temporary defeat and therefore built a solid foundation through which failures can be processed and learnt from.

In the previous video, we covered some of the ways in which persistence can be built. Persistence we said can be strengthened through desire. We can develop the idea further here. Persistence is strengthened by a definiteness of purpose. In knowing what you want and having a strong desire for its achievement you create a strong motivating force to pull you through difficulty and temporary defeat, onwards towards your goal.

What are some of the other causes of persistence?

• Self-reliance & self-belief: believing in your ability to execute a plan, which will lead to the desired result.
• Combining knowledge & experience: Knowing that you have a sound plan based on knowledge and experience not guesswork
• Will power: Developing your will power, which can be done through meditation and other strategies which we will discuss in subsequent videos.

Persistence is a direct result of habits. This means that through repeated efforts – continuing to pursue your goal in the face of temporary defeat – you will build the habit of persistence. This practice, once it takes root as a habit solidifies to become a feature of your character. You become a person who is resilient and tenacious as a result.

The video ends with an examination of the symptoms of a lack of persistence, which we must all be aware of and mindful to avoid. These symptoms are:

• Procrastination
• Failure to take responsibility
• Failure to seek feedback
• Fear of criticism of others for temporary failures