We’ve all been exposed to enough life experience, advice, media (inspirational movies) and teaching to know that persistence is critical to achieving anything in life.
We know what persistence is, it only takes looking back and learning to walk, talk, read, ride a bike or any other number of accomplishments that took a degree of persistence to master.
We know sticking with something is necessary and we know we have done it in the past…so why is persistence so hard when it comes to what we are trying to accomplish now?
After all, failing to achieve a goal, dream or desire in life is one thing when you lack the knowledge or experience but is made even worse when you know what is required, but can’t seem to summon the willpower or ability to actually put persistence into practice.
Here are 4 obstacles that stand in the way of you breaking through and becoming more persistent in your life so you can finally achieve your goals and dreams.
Passion Driven
In most cases the real reason behind not being able to tap into that well of persistence in your life is a lack of passion around either or both of 1) Your ultimate goal or dream 2) The path you have defined around reaching that goal or dream. Look closely at your goal or dream and ask yourself “Is this MY ultimate dream and passion or is this a passion that someone else had and it seemed interesting or cool to me?” Many people are chasing goals or dreams that they have observed in others filling a void in their own life rather than creating their own passion-filled goals and dreams.
Second, ask yourself “Am I fully behind and passionate about the plan I have to reach the desired outcome in my life?” Here, there is often no plan or at most, a plan that is not fully baked and therefore cannot be something you are passionate about. If this is the case, no matter how passionate you are about the goal or desired outcome, you will not persist because you can’t see a clear plan to reach the destination.
Clarity Fights Off Doubt
Another major obstacle to persistence is the uncertainty and doubt that accumulates in your mind that constantly holds you back from taking persistent action. The voices in your head, images of stumbling or failure, negativity and hopelessness are all the result of doubt which eats away at your motivation and persistence resulting in procrastination and giving up.
Fight doubt with certainty and clarity. What this means is that identifying areas of doubt can easily be overcome with improving the clarity of your journey (coming up with a planned set of steps, procedures, actions that will lead to the desired result that are complete and clear) and then programming positive reinforcement around this journey by surrounding yourself with other examples, case studies, positive and like-minded people.
Slay Overwhelm
A close relative to doubt is being overwhelmed by the entire experience to the point where you become so confused or where fear enters preventing you from taking persistent action. A few ways of dealing with overwhelm include: choosing a few strong role models and listening to them only limiting feedback and outside noise from everywhere else, outlining specific steps so that you can work one step at a time instead of having to boil the ocean each time you try to persist, and learning to isolate important tasks so you can apply your laser focus to those few daily items that make the biggest difference to executing your plan. Persistence relies on overcoming overwhelm.
Setbacks = Progress
How do you view setbacks or failures? Do you see them as permanent or temporary? Do you view them as something to be avoided or embraced? Do you internalize them as negative or largely positive? Have you ever thought about other successful people and how they would have handled failures or setbacks?
The truth is that much more can be learned and more progress can be made from a setback than from any other outcome. The reason is that a setback or failure means resistance, this simply means that you have made a wrong turn or perhaps a sub-optimal turn, but suddenly the path ahead becomes much more clear, certain with less doubt. In addition, once you have been through setbacks a few times you gain new confidence that you can handle whatever comes next giving you even more hope and certainty to persist in the journey forward.
If you are struggling with persistence in your life, chances are it’s because of one of these persistence obstacles – tackle it and suddenly you will find your life changes as do the results you get.
Getting UNSTUCK In Your Life
If you need help along the way in understanding your passion, your purpose and how to overcome obstacles on your pathway – this powerful guide will help you reach that incredible pinnacle you know you are capable of, but have not yet been able to reach.
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