PERSISTENCE - My Experiment In "Following Through"

Persistence is a quality – the iron quality of the brave, the courageous and the never-give-ups.

No matter how good you are, there is no success without persistence. World War I flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker said, “I can give you a six-word formular for success: Think things through – then follow through.” When we decide to do something - whatever it is - to make it a reality, we must follow through. In following through can we achieve. Many people like to think things through; unfortunately very few follow through. Persistence is the key to “follow through.”

Some couple of years ago, I decided to engage in an exercise program. My motivation was watching Athletes on TV who ran the marathon or some long distance. I admired their staying ability. I compared it to business. You require similar staying ability to make it in business. Becos I admired this long distance athletes, I wondered where they got the energy from to run for hours non-stop. So I decided to embark on this project. My goal was to be able to jog for one hour non-stop. Like every goal I have accomplished before then, and after then, I wrote it down; and drew a chart to monitor my progress on a daily bases. I set out a day to begin. I agreed with my self that I would wake up earlier than usual, everyday and jog for one hour. I will start by 5am and terminate by 6am.

The first day came, and I began my jogging exercise. I had hardly jogged for 5 minutes, When I started feeling very sharp pains in my legs and foot. The pain was unbearable. My heart was beating so fast it was as if my heart will fall out of my mouth. I looked at my watch, it was just 5 minutes since I began. I stopped and told myself “NO MORE!. I can’t do this. I might collapse and die, I said to myself.” So I walked back home. The next day, I got up early again. I remembered the previous day experience. It scared me. Then I remembered the promise I made to myself. I felt ashamed. I had promised, but now I wanted to quit. After a moment of contemplation, not wanting defeat, there and then I resolved I will follow through. I set out for the jogging. The pains on my legs began, my heart started beating very fast. But I decided to endure it anyhow. I jogged for five minutes, stopped and walked back home. The next day, I continued. I was determined to jog every day starting at 5am. That I did.

After a couple of days of trial, I decided to increase the amount of time I spent jogging. I started liking it, looking forward to every new day to engage in this exercise. In the succeeding six months I was running for 30 minutes with less pain in my legs, and my heart beat establishing a kind of steady rhythm.

I kept jogging every day apart from Sundays. I took it easy on myself, but pushed myself at every month interval to an increased timing. My progress was slow but steady. Sometimes I felt so tired getting up and going jogging in the morning. Instead will decide to substitute it with another important activity. I gave myself excuses that the other activity was equally important, even more important than jogging for that day. But I had to resist the temptation of thinking that way. I had made a promised to myself and I must follow through.

Many nights I struggled with sleep, doubts, and fear that I would not make it. But I had to subdue this negative voices with positive affirmations, like, “You CAN run for one hour every day,”until I could see myself - in my minds eye - doing it. I persisted.

Eighteen months later, I was able to achieve my goal. I got up one day and ran for 1 hour non-stop. How happy I was. My excitement was moving. I was elated. Then I sat down and looked at my monitoring chart. I then reflected on my first attempt eighteen months back, when I could not do five minutes. I wondered where the energy came from now to do one hour. I jogged for 1 hour for many days after and was proud of my accomplishment. There was something else that was equally exciting and worthy of mention.

I noticed, after many months of trial, that the pains I usually felt in my legs had disapppeared. My heart beat was beating at a steady rhythm and tempo without difficulty in breathing. More super was the discovery that, after about 20-25 minutes of jogging, my body seem to switch to what I call “overdrive.” This is a condition where you just keep running, feeling you could run for eternity, non-stop. Unbelievable! There and then I started to feel how those marathon runners I admired so much, felt when engaged in their art – they could run for eternity. The words of Vince Lombardi, a legendary baseball coach started ringing in my ears:

“The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of determination.”

My persistence had paid-off. My obstacles vanished into thin air as if they never existed.

Those who deserve success are those who persist inspite of all odds, difficulties and challenges, until they get what they want.

Persistence is an attitude you must cultivate, it is the strength you must acquire, through nurturing by careful incremental steps of continuity.

Life is a marathon they say. But this marathon is made up of series of shorter races until the long stretch. Each day has its own event; each task it own challenge. You have to get out of bed each new day and race again. But it’s never exactly the same race as before. You must keep plugging in until you start to experience the little incremental steps. Management Consultant Laddie F. Hutar once said: “Success consists of a series of little daily victories.” Each little daily victory is a result of persistence. Persistence gets you through the series of daily victories.

You can never sing your best song, be your best performance, reach your highest peak, without persistence. Are you interested in achieving that goal or target, getting to the peak of your game? Then get acquinted with this virtue, then befriend it!

OJ.