Achieving Goals Is 90% Persistence!

Achieving goals really does need persistence. It's true, you need a practical plan fueled by a strong desire. You also do well to commit your goal to writing and fine tune the wording for clarity.

But all those well known goal setting steps could fizzle into oblivion if it was't for the last crucial ingredient - PERSISTENCE! Here's the proof: Ty Cobb set an amazing record in baseball in the year 1915 by stealing 96 bases. Seven years later Max Carey set the second-best record with 51 stolen bases.

Does this mean that Cobb was twice as good as Carey? Consider this: Cobb made 134 attempts. Carey made 53. So Carey's average was much better. Cobb however made 81 more tries and was rewarded with 44 more stolen bases.

Frank Bettger makes this strong point on page 238 of his fascinating classic: How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling. When you get behind the big success stories in any given field, you often find the most successful have made more attempts and spent longer hours at the given task than anyone else.

To put it another way, they allow the law of averages room to work in their favor! They just keep going, striking out against all odds.

When it comes to achieving goals, this precious characteristic, persistence, along with its bed-fellow, perseverance, is an absolute necessity.

Yes the previous six steps are also essential and crucial BUT, if you do not persist, your wonderful plan can go down the drain. Your vivid mental images can just evaporate into thin air. Achieving goals is relegated to wishful thinking.

Achieving goals means we have to just keep at it day after day after day. Then you are GUARANTEED results - eventually!

Mental Toughness

To maintain this kind of momentum you have to develop mental toughness. To be mentally tough means you minimize the effects of discouragement and you turn negatives into positives.

Jack Black, in his illuminating book "MindStore", uses a computer expression to combat negativity - "Delete that Programme". Whenever a negative thought comes into your mind or when others make negative comments, say to yourself, "Delete that Programme" and replace it with a positive thought.

When, for example, you find yourself thinking along the lines that this is not working, it's useless and a complete waste of time, get your mental toughness to kick in by repeating to yourself "DELETE THAT PROGRAMME".

Instead think: "What do I need to do to make this work!" Admittedly, negative mental habits are hard to break. It takes time and persistence but oh, the rewards when you do!

The Remaining 90%

Do we understand then why the title of this article emphasizes the importance of sheer persistence? It basically comes down to that. Just keep on going, persist, persist, persist, and let the good old law of averages work for you.

Achieving goals WILL become your reality!


Copyright (c) 2009 Michael A Jones