Nothing in this world can take the place of, persistence, nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Fun fact 35% of New Year's resolutions are broken before Dr King’s birthday January 19.
If you want to be successful, develop the habit of reaching decisions promptly and of changing these decisions slowly. People who fail, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions very slowly, and changing these decisions quickly and often.
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Authur's persistence story
Here is the story of, persistence. Aurthur was an airborne paratrooper. Jumping out of airplanes killed his knees, his back, his legs. When he got out of the army he walked with a cane and couldn't do anything, so he gained a lot of weight. He could not support his weight, so he couldn't exercise. The doctor at the VA told him to accept his faith that he would never walk normal again. His health rapidly declined.
One day while surfing the internet, He came across Diamond Dallas Page doing yoga. He said I could do this. He bought the DVD. He could use his arm to support his weight and get a cardio workout. Arthur was 297 lbs when he started doing yoga. He kept falling down, but he would get back again. Every day he got better and better in 19 months he had lost over 100 lbs and could not only walk without a cane but he could run. If he didn’t persist, he would still be 297 lbs or more.
You have to have desire to persist. Your desire has to make you feel good. Change rarely works unless it is motivated by feeling. Arthur wanted to feel better, to look better and as he started losing weight and feeling better, he was proud of himself.
You need persistence to create a fortune
Some people who have accumulated great fortunes did so because of necessity. They developed the habit of, persistence, because circumstances forced them to become, persistent. Those who have cultivated the, habit of persistence, seem to enjoy insurance against failure. No matter how many times they are defeated. They finally arrive at the top of the ladder. Sometimes it appears that there was a hidden guide whose duty is to test us through all sorts of discouraging experiences.
Those who pick themselves up after defeat and keep on trying finally arrive at their destination. The hidden guide lets no one enjoy great achievement without passing the, persistence test. Those who fail the, persistence test, simply did not make the grade. Those who pass are rewarded for their, persistence, and in return they get the goal they are pursuing. But that is not all. They receive something infinitely more important than material compensation. They acquire the knowledge that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage.
People who learn from experience the importance of, persistence, will not accept defeat as being anything more than temporary. They are the ones whose desires are so persistently applied, that defeat is finally changed into victory. We see that an overwhelmingly large number of people go down in defeat, never to rise again. We also see the few who take the punishment of defeat as an urge to greater effort. But what we do not see is the silent but irresistible power that comes to the rescue of those who persist in the face of discouragement.
The power of persistence
If we speak of this power at all, we call it, persistence, and let it go with that. One thing is sure. If you do not have, persistence, you will not achieve noteworthy success in any calling.
I am studying the book Think and Grow Rich and there is an excellent story of the author, Napoleon Hill, on how he persisted in the face of 7 major life defeats to become the author of one of the best self-improvement books ever written.
Here is brief, biography of Napoleon Hill. Hill was born into poverty in the backwoods of Virginia. Young Nap, as he was called, was the local gun toting troublemaker. He would probably have ended up a criminal had his widowed father not met and married Martha Raimi. Nap’s new stepmother set out to change the family's troublemaker ways, and she started by trading a typewriter for his six-shooter pistol.
She told him if you become as good with a typewriter as you are with that gun, you may become rich and famous and known throughout the world. Her faith and encouragement turned young Nap around and by the age of 15, he was submitting stories to the local newspapers and doing everything he could to get himself out of his meager circumstance.
After completing high school and one year at a business college, he wrote an audacious letter to Rufus Ayers, one of the most powerful men in the call industry. He'll wrote to apply for a job and got the job.
Napoleon Hill persistence eventually led to victory
Setback #1 – Hill advanced rapidly until he was assuming responsibilities and receiving a salary far out of proportion to his age. He'll also prove to be so trustworthy and honest that Eyers promoted him to replace the manager, making this 19-year-old, the youngest manager of a mine and in charge of 350 men. Then his employer lost his fortune, and Hill lost his position.
Setback # 2 – His next position was that of sales manager of a large lumber manufacturer in the south, his advancement was rapid. And he did so well that his employer took him into partnership with him. The business was making tons of money and Hill was again at the top of his game then disaster struck. The 1907 Panic swept down, and overnight it rendered him poor by destroying the business and relieving him of every dollar that he had.
Setback #3 – Hill decided to go to law school. He attended law school at night and worked as an automobile salesman during the day. He saw the need for trained automobile mechanics. So, he opened an educational department in the manufacturing plant and began to train ordinary machinist in automobile assembly and repair work.
The school prospered paying Hill over $1,000 a month in net profits. His banker knew the business was prospering therefore, he loaned him money to expand. Then when he couldn’t pay, he took over my business as calmly as if it had belonged to him, which it did. From an income of more than $1,000 a month, he was suddenly reduced to poverty.
Setback # 4– Hill decided to move to Chicago. His first position in Chicago was that of advertising manager for a large correspondence school. He once again did so well that the president of the school induced him to resign his position and go into the candy manufacturing business with him. The business grew rapidly and soon they had a chain of stores in 18 different cities. Then his partner got greedy and got Hill arrested on false charges so they could take the business. Hill was cleared of any wrongdoing but once again he was out of a job and money.
Setback # 5 – Hill then turned his efforts to teaching advertising and salesmanship at one of the colleges in the Midwest. His school prospered from the very beginning. He had a resident class and also a correspondence school. Then President Woodrow Wilson declared the United States would enter the war against Germany. At one stroke all his students were drafted in the war and Hill charged off more than $75,000 in tuition fees. Once more, he was penniless.
Setback # 6 – The time had come for another turning point. Hill decided to sit down at my typewriter his first love and to his astonishment, his hands began to play a tune on the keyboard. He had never written so rapidly or so easily before. The words were downloaded to him. Hill wrote was a long essay in which he described a new idealism based on the golden rule that he thought could emerge from the war.
He declared that he would help spread the word and vowed he was going to find the money to launch a new magazine to be called Hills Golden Rule. His, persistence, paid off, by early January of 1919 Hills Golden Rule magazine was on the newsstands. It was a hit and made lots of money until he exposed some bad men and they tried to kill him. He then had to run for his life and hide out.
Setback # 7 – While in hiding, Hill decided to complete the project he started 20 years earlier. In March of 1928, Hill published the results of his efforts, a multi volume Master Work and title Law of Success. No one had ever seen anything like it. It was a phenomenon, a runaway bestseller. A little over a year later, while Hill was finally enjoying the fruits of his long Labor and, persistence, the stock market crash of 1929 hit, the bottom fell out of everything, including the market for books.
It you stick with it you will have victory
Victory – Though he never gave up on his vision, like the rest of America, Hill struggled through the depression. He lectured, he wrote, and he taught in every way he could, but it was very hard to preach personal achievement to a country that had lost faith in itself. Napoleon Hill, made it his personal mission to turn the tide by creating a variety of self-help programs, but it became disappointingly apparent that it was going to take more than one man to do it.
When Franklin D Roosevelt was elected president, he reached out to, Napoleon Hill. They released Think and Grow Rich to such resounding success that it sold well over a million copies even before the depression ended. To date it has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. And to this day, it still sells more than a million copies a year in its various editions.
Why did, Napolean Hill, persist? Because he wanted to be rich.
Why do persist? Or do you stay down when you get knocked down.
How many people you know would keep trying after being knocked down 7 times? The devil would have gotten his hocks in your mental state and told you that you are a failure and that you will never be successful. You don’t have what it takes. Etc. If the devil leads you into depression or disappointment, then he’s got you. He has removed your heart, your desire. You become just cold, tap water.
Don't be tap water
Do you know what happens at, 212 degrees? Water boils
At 211% it is just hot water.
What can hot water do? Not much
What can boiling water do?
Everything!
At, 212 degrees, the steam from boiling water can power locomotives.
Boiling water can cook your food.
That one degree is the difference between mediocrity and great achievement.
This one little degree of extra effort is usually the difference between winning or losing in life. It is where you find the top athletes. The ones who play through pain, the ones who get back up after being knocked down.
Most Olympics track events are won by seconds, by the person who desires it the most and is willing to give it that extra 1% to get to boiling.
The Daytona 500 is won every year with a one second difference between the winner and looser. The first-place winner takes home a prize of 1,650,000 and the second-place winner takes home 600,000.
That 1% is worth over 1 million dollars.
We see the losing team crying at the Super Bowl. They were so close. All that was needed was a little more heat, one extra degree of effort.
So, what makes the difference? Why only a few people in this world turns it up that extra 1 degree?
You Got to be hungry
The difference is courage, confidence, self-reliance, stamina and, persistence.
As Les Brown says “you got to be hungry”
I love Mike Tyson
He did an interview on why he dominated the sport, and it went like this:
As I approach the ring my confidence builds this is my world the ring is my where I excel. The closer I get to the ring the more confident I get. As I step into the ring, I am a God I am invincible. I never take my eyes off of my opponent. I stare him down and as soon as he looks away, I know that I won. I see fear in his eyes.
So, let's fast forward to the Tyson and Buster Douglas championship fight. Tyson was in his glory he is dominating the fight. He hits his knock down punch and Douglas falls to the ground. The count begins Douglas can't get up. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, bell! Saved by the bell. Douglas goes to his corner and he remembers his why. Why he must win this fight.
You see Douglas’s mother told him that he was going to be the Heavy Weight champion of the world. She believed in him when no one else did and she died 2 days before the fight. He couldn't let her down. That was all he needed to bring his desire to boiling point. That was all he needed to push through the pain and fear.
He came back out and Tyson was no longer a God, he was no longer a giant. He saw in his mind’s eye an ant that could be crushed and he started to fight with that end goal in mind. The opportunity came in the 10th round. An uppercut to the right jaw and Tyson fell like Goliath! The new Heavy Weight champion of the world Buster Douglas.
Conclusion
If you stick with it, you will win. Let, persistence, become your friend and do not be, tap water.
Thanks for tuning into to, Transformation Fridays, with coach Myrna. Hope you were inspired today to go out and transform your life. Until next time Namaste
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