Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~ William Feather

Perseverance, or persistent determination, is a common personal development topic, and therefore I will not be discussing perseverance in it’s traditional sense. What I will be discussing is smart perseverance. The problem with the traditional concept of perseverance is it’s vagueness. When should you persist and when should you just quit and move on? When is perseverance smart, and when is it just a waste of time?

Smart perseverance simply is a conscious persistent determination. It involves regularly evaluating each one of your goals and actions deciding whether or not you should keep going. The following tips will shed a lot more light on smart perseverance.

1. Pursue Your Heart’s True Desires.

   Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about. ~ Unknown

   A lot of the time we aren’t really going after what we want because of fear or insecurity. We end up pursuing lives that never even feel like they are truly our own, instead they are just what society and others consider appropriate. On your death bed do you want to look back on your life with regrets? This is why you must really go after what your heart desires. It can be difficult to find your hearts true desires because of social conditioning and many of society’s implied rules which you are raised with. You must approach it like an innocent young kid, who sees a world full of endless possibilities. Once you are pursuing your heart’s true desire, smart perseverance takes care of itself. You will be naturally motivated to pursue your desires.

2. Do Not Confuse the Means with the Ends

If asked, what do you want out of life? Most of us would conclude happiness. We all want to lead happy satisfying lives. However sometimes we associate the wrong things with happiness. It’s common in a capitalist society that money is associated with happiness. This is done in tv shows, the movies, and advertising. Money is necessary however it’s important to realize that it’s just a mean to an end. The problem is that a lot of people pursue making lots and lots of money as one of their goals. And once they make the money they realize that longterm money by itself never makes a person happy. Your real goal should be happiness. And once you make this clarification you will realize that there are many more means to happiness than just money. As an example building friendships with fun exciting happy people will always add to the quality of your life, and leave you feeling happier. Giving back to your community will also increase your happiness. Taking time to reflect on all of the great things that you have been blessed with in your life will also make you happier.

3. Do Not Give up Because of Laziness.
   

   Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. ~ Thomas Alva Edison

   An easy happy satisfying life is an ideal. There are no shortcuts to happiness. Life is a journey not a destination. Living a lazy easy lifestyle will never be satisfying in the longrun. In fact it usually leads to feeling a light depression. Living a happy satisfying life is hard work.

4. Do Not Give up Because of Slow or Lack of Progress.

   Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. ~ Dale Carnegie

   This will take care of itself if you are pursuing your heart’s true desires, because your desire will be so strong, that progress will become irrelevant. However there still will be times where you might become discouraged because of the slow or lack of progress. Remember that while in a movie you can see a character progress or change his whole lifestyle in a matter of 2 hours, in real life progress is much slower. This is why most people don’t stick with their goals. Aim for steady slow progress.

5. Success is Closer than You Think.
   

   Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Alva Edison

   Success might just be around the corner. Even if it’s not, by persevering in pursuing your goal you are building a great lifelong habit. If you give up on your goal, how do you know that you will not give up on your next goal or the one after that? Be careful not to make giving up a habit. If you hang in there and keep working at it, you are building a persistent determined character.

6. Be Flexible & Willing to Change.

   Do not let your current identity or self image limit the pursuit of your goals. Be willing to make changes, to try new things, and to learn new skills. Be willing to look like a fool every now and then. Remember that if you keep doing the same things you will always get the same results. So to achieve a new goal you must slowly make changes and try different things.

7. Start Visualizing.
   Visualization is very powerful especially as you use it more and more. Whatever goal or endeavor you are pursuing, close your eyes and start visualizing yourself as having achieved it. Visualize how happy you feel as a result.

   If, for example, you are pursuing weight loss then visualize a thin version of yourself with your ideal weight and body shape. Visualize how lean your body looks, how well clothing fit you, how confident and happy you are with your amazing body shape. Visualize how energetic you are. Visualize becoming a lot more successful in other areas of your life because of the confidence you now have from achieving your weight loss goal.

   Daily review your goals, and visualize achieving them.

8. Add Emotions to Your Goals

   A goal is just a goal, a few words or sentences. However once you add emotions, it starts becoming part of you. Achieving that goal becomes a strong part of your character. Lets say you set the following goal “I want to lose weight”. This is a very plainly stated goal. What does it look like when you add emotions? “I want to lose weight because I’m sick of always having to buy new clothing that are a size or two bigger. I want to lose weight because I’m sick of looking in the mirror and seeing all those fat rolls.” The more emotional reasons that you come up with for why you must achieve a goal the better. You should regularly review and add to your list of reasons.

9. Regularly Review these Words of Calvin Collidge
   

   “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
   Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
   Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb.
   Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
   Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”