Persistence pays-always.

But persistence - what is it? It is the quality where you keep marching towards your goal until it finally comes within your reach.

It’s probably the single most important quality anybody needs in order to accomplish anything significant.

But why is it so undervalued in the quest for success? Why is it that when we see success, we often conclude that it is because of some God-given “gift”, some extraordinary talent? Why is it that when you look at a Thomas Edison and the magnificent contributions he made to science, you automatically conclude “Ah , he was but a gifted man”? How come you never say, “boy I wish I had the courage to persevere through the failure of burning 10,000 bulbs before I could finally light one?”

There is a reason. Unlike talent, persistence is not a very glamorous quality, is it? There is a tendency to idolize talent and downplay persistence because it gives us the perfect excuse not to act. After all, if it is God-gifted talent that makes the difference and if you don’t have it, why even try? Talent is what does it and you don’t have it. Giving up seems like a wise option doesn’t it?

But there is another reason and this is actually more crucial.

As a general rule, society does not value effort. It values just the final results. So if you try hard and finally you fail despite your efforts, nobody is going to come pat you on the shoulder and say, “great effort man keep it up”. The usual reaction is going to be, “I told you so!”

This freaking hurts.

This means that as soon as things start getting harder, the alarm bells are going off inside your head - don’t do it, you might fail and you know what that means. It means another round of merciless I-told-u-so’s. Better give up now to avoid trouble later.

As always, the first step to overcoming this is awareness. You have to absolutely know that when the time comes to be your absolute best, this is what keeps you back .

Often times when you are aware of what is holding you back, the mere consciousness itself solves the problem. By being aware, the next time you are feeling the temptation to give up, just ignore it, focus on the path ahead, and just keep going. Remember the wise words of Rocky:

But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!