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Self-Discipline: Persistence

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is

more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded

genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On has

solved and alwa!s will solve the problems of the human race.

- Calvin Coolidge

Persistence is the fth and fnal pillar o sel-discipline.

What Is Persistence?

Persistence is the ability to maintain action regardless o your eelings. You press on

even when you eel like quitting.

When you work on any big goal your motivation will wa! and wane like waveshitting the shore. "ometimes you#ll eel motivated$ sometimes you won#t. %ut it#s

not your motivation that will produce results & it#s your action. Persistence allows

you to keep taking action even when you don#t eel motivated to do so and

thereore you keep accumulating results.

Persistence will ultimately provide its own motivation. ' you simply keep taking

action you#ll eventually get results and results can be very motivating. (or

e!ample you may become a lot more enthusiastic about dieting and e!ercising

once you#ve lost those frst )* pounds and eel your clothes ftting more loosely.

When to Give Up

"hould you always persist and never give up+ Certainly not. "ometimes giving up is

clearly the best option.

,ave you ever heard o a company called ra--/ata+ What about 0icrosot+ %oth

companies were started by %ill 1ates and Paul 2llen. ra--/ata was the frst

company they started back in )345. You can read the story o ra--/ata here.

1ates and 2llen ran it or several years beore throwing in the towel. hey gave up.

course they did a little better with 0icrosot.

' they hadn#t given up on ra--/ata then we wouldn#t have such rich collections

o 0icrosot and %ill 1ates 6okes today.

"o how do you know when to press on vs. when to give up+

's your plan still correct+ ' not update the plan. 's your goal still correct+ ' not

update or abandon your goal. here#s no honor in clinging to a goal that no longer

inspires you. Persistence is not stubbornness.

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 his was a particularly di7cult lesson or me to learn. ' had always believed one

should never give up that once you set a goal you should hang on to the bitter

end. he captain goes down with the ship and all that. ' ' ever ailed to fnish a

pro6ect ' started '#d eel very guilty about it.

8ventually ' fgured out that this is 6ust nonsense.

' you#re growing at all as a human being then you#re going to be a di9erent person

each year than you were the previous year. 2nd i you consciously pursue personal

development then the changes will oten be dramatic and rapid. You can#t

guarantee that the goals you set today will still be ones you#ll want to achieve a

year rom now.

0y frst business was /e!terity "otware. ' started it in )33: resh out o college.

%ut ater running it or more than a decade ' was ready or something new. ' still

run /e!terity on the side but it#s not my ull-time ocus anymore. 't takes me only

about an hour or two a week to maintain it partly because ' designed it to be as

automated as possible and to provide me with a passive income. 't was successul

to the e!tent ' wanted it to be. ' could have continued to grow it much larger but '

knew ' didn#t want to spend the rest o my lie making computer games. Creating

my own game company was my dream at age 55 and ater publishing a couple

do;en games ' eel ' accomplished that goal. 55-year old "teve is very satisfed. %ut

today ' have di9erent dreams.

/id ' give up on /e!terity+ You could say that but it would be more accurate to say

that ' was inected by a new vision o something that was ar more important to me.

,ad ' stubbornly persisted with /e!terity this site would never have e!isted. '#d be

working on a new game instead o my frst book.

'n order to make room or new goals we have to delete or complete old ones. 2nd

sometimes new goals are so compelling and inspiring that there#s no time to

complete old ones & they have to be abandoned hal-fnished. '#ve always ound it

uncomortable to do this but ' know it#s necessary. he hard part is consciously

deciding to delete an old pro6ect knowing it will never be fnished. ' have a fle ull

o game ideas and some prototypes or new games that will never see the light o

day. Consciously deciding that those pro6ects had to be abandoned was really hard

or me. 't took me a long time to come to grips with it. %ut it was necessary or my

own growth to be able to do this.

' still had to solve the problem o setting goals that might become obsolete in a year

due to my own personal growth. ,ow did ' solve this problem+ ' cheated. ' fgured

out the only way ' could set long-term goals that would stick would be i they were

aligned with my own process o growth. he pursuit o personal growth has long

been a stable constant or me even though it#s parado!ically in <u! at the same

time. "o instead o trying to set f!ed goals as ' did with my games business '

began setting broader more dynamic goals that were aligned with my own growth.

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 his new business allows me to pursue my personal growth ull-out and to share

what ' learn with others. "o growth itsel is the goal both or mysel and others. his

creates a symbiotic relationship whereby helping others eeds back into my own

growth which in turn generates new ideas or helping others. 2nyone who#s been

reading this site since last year has probably seen that e9ect in action.

 he direct and conscious pursuit o personal growth is the only type o mission that

would work or me. ' ' made it my mission to master real estate investing or

e!ample '#d probably become bored with it ater a ew years. "ince ' want to keep

growing indefnitely ' have to maintain a certain level o challenge and keep raising

the bar ever higher. ' can#t let things get too dull and risk alling into a pattern o

complacency.

 he value o persistence comes not rom stubbornly clinging to the past. 't comes

rom a vision o the uture that#s so compelling you would give almost anything to

make it real. he vision ' have o my uture now is ar greater than the one ' had or

/e!terity. o be able to help people grow and to solve their most di7cult problemsis ar more inspiring to me than entertaining people. hese values started oo;ing

out o me as ' ran /e!terity because ' avored logic pu;;le games that challenged

people to think oten passing up the opportunity to publish games ' elt would make

money but which wouldn#t provide much real value to people.

Persistence o action comes rom persistence o vision. When you#re super-clear

about what you want in such a way that your vision doesn#t change much you#ll be

more consistent & and persistent & in your actions. 2nd that consistency o action

will produce consistency o results.

Can you identiy a part o your lie where you#ve demonstrated a pattern o long-term persistence+ ' think i you can identiy such an area it may provide a clue to

your mission & something you can work towards where passion and sel-discipline

unction synergistically.

This post is part si" of a si"#part series on self#discipline$  part % & part ' & part ( &

 part ) & part * & part +

 

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