Do you give up too easily? When life throws you a curve ball, what do you do with it?
I recently had a strong lesson in the power of persistence. My internet service failed, and stayed down for eight agonizing days. If I only used this computer for playing games and sending email, it might not have been such a big deal. But because my livelihood depends on it, I became acutely aware of how much I need this computer. I felt so disconnected from everything and everyone. Toward the end of those eight days, I started to wonder if they wouldn’t be able to restore my service – and I just couldn’t accept that.
I had to call repeatedly and speak to technician after technician (I think I spoke to 11in all!). Each of them tried the fixes they knew how to do, but it was unsuccessful every single time. No one seemed to be able to figure out the problem. It was maddening, to say the least. And I wanted to give up. I truly did. I was frustrated beyond belief, trying to find someone who knew how to restore our service, but over and over I kept getting people that tried the same exact things that the other technicians had. It seemed hopeless.
But I had two choices. Give up the battle and resign myself to a slower dial-up connection (which would negatively impact my work) – or continue on until the problem was resolved. I HAD to persist. The alternative was simply unacceptable to me. Finally my determination paid off and we got a technician that knew what to do, and he had our service restored in minutes.
It was a big lesson for me, and that is the subject of this article. The power of persistence. How often do we give up when we seem to be making no progress? I am very guilty of that myself. The obstacles seem too large, the road too rocky, so we convince ourselves that “it’s not meant to be.”
But what if we persisted instead of giving up? Is it meant to be then? Maybe what’s meant to be, is what we choose to create. What if the obstacles in our lives are simply little tests by the universe, to see how badly we really want to reach our goals?
Too often, the circumstances we think we want, aren’t really what we want at all, and we approach our goals halfheartedly. We say, “Well, I’ll try, but if it doesn’t work out, that’s okay.” How important is that goal? Probably not very important. If it doesn’t matter to us that it doesn’t come to be, then maybe we need to set some goals that do matter.
Our true goals are our deepest hearts’ desires. With those goals, there is no giving up. The alternative is unacceptable. We simply cannot take no for an answer. We may have to work at it for months, years, even decades. But we cannot give up. It’s just too important to us.
It’s eye-opening, isn’t it? Think about the goals you’ve set in the past. Think about the ones that didn’t come to pass. Have you let go of them?
Or are you still working on them, even though you may not be seeing any progress yet? If you are still working on them, it’s a good bet that they are truly important to you. Deciding just how important may be the single thing that will determine your level of success.