I begin with the ubiquitous quote by Calvin Coolidge, which aptly sums up the quality of persistence:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

In today’s blog, you are going to see,
What is persistence?
An inspiring story of being persistent.
Key points to be persistent.
Persisting until death
How Coconut Boxes helps children to be persistent.

 

 

What is persistence…?

Here you go, the conventional definition of persistence is, “Refusing to give up or let go; persevering obstinately; firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.”

 

 

Is it any wonder then, that persistence is the fundamental difference between a successful outcome and a failed outcome? In that case, it behoves us to develop the vital quality of persistence. Here is an inspiring story, which you probably know already.

 

 

Thomas Edison’s perspiration…

Thomas Edison’s persistence was exemplified in his famous quote, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
Nobody in history was more persistent than Thomas Edison.
The story is legendary that he tried 10,000 times before succeeding in creating his light bulb.

 

 

Considered ‘unteachable’ and ‘stupid’ by the teachers at a young age, the inventor went on to eventually create the electric light bulb. Throughout his career, Edison obtained 1,093 patents. Moreover, while many of these inventions — such as the light bulb, stock printer, phonograph and alkaline battery — were groundbreaking, even more of them were unsuccessful.

At the time of the invention of the light bulb, he has failed more than ten thousand times but he still kept trying, and finally, he got success. In order to prove its viability, the first commercial electric light system was installed on Pearl Street in the financial district of Lower Manhattan in 1882, bordering City Hall and two newspapers. Initially, only four hundred lamps were lit; a year later, there were 513 customers using 10,300 lamps.

When a news reporter asked him how does it feel by failing 10,000 times and finally got success then he replied :

“I didn’t fail 10,000 times, but I found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

This thought of Thomas Edison has changed the world. It is the most popular thought of Edison and a great example of being persistent.

If you are persistent on what do you want, you will definitely find success coming your way. If you fail, learn from it and keep moving forward with persistence. Failure isn’t meant to be a reason to stop it’s to show you a way that didn’t work. As Tony Robbins said, “Don’t change the goal, change the approach, be persistent and never give up”
In simple words, persistence means the attitude and personality trait of working hard and trying again and again until complete success is achieved. Here is why persistence is the key to success and why you should develop it as a vital personality trait.

• Persistence makes you an expert
• Being persistent will motivate you to try harder
• Persistence is a sign of being ambitious
• Persistence will set a good example
• Persistence teaches you the value of success
• Persistence will help you gain experience
• Persistence will make you aware of your weakness

 

Persistence makes you an expert

 

You may not be good at doing something for the first time but you will get better at it when you keep trying for the second time, third time and so on. With persistence, you will continue to do the same thing over and over again until you achieve complete success. This will make you an expert in whatever task you are doing.

Thomas Edison was considered ‘unteachable’ by his teachers but he persisted to work hard on his passion. Aside from being an inventor, Edison also managed to become a successful manufacturer and businessman, marketing his inventions to the public. Now he is considered as a legendary inventor and an expert by the universe.

 

Being persistent will motivate you to try harder

 

 

 

Being persistent means that you will keep trying again and again. With every attempt, you will inch closer to success. It will motivate you to put more effort to get closer to your goals when you see that there is an actual difference between where you stand right now, and your previous effort. Self-motivation is an important aspect of being successful.

Edison used the process of elimination to achieve his goals. He would try everything he could think of until there were signs of progress. He simply kept going until those signs appeared.

 

Persistence is a sign of being ambitious

 

Only those people who are highly ambitious can incorporate persistence into each and every little thing that they do in their daily lives. When you keep attempting something with persistence, everyone around you will look at you and criticize for wasting time and energy nevertheless there are people who will look at you as an ambitious person. However, you need to believe in yourself and it will build a positive personality image for you, a key in shaping the outlook of a successful persona.

Of course, in many situations things looked so hopeless and pointless that the average person would have given up on his work. But not Edison.

Many people told him that he is wasting his time, his faith and confidence were sometimes on the verge of being gone, but he persisted and succeeded. Many times.

 

 

Persistence will set a good example

 

A reason why persistence is the key to success is because people around you will be inspired by your level of persistence. When they see you achieving your goals with sheer persistence, they too will try to imitate this trait. This will result in an overall boost in productivity and efficiency, making persistence a highly regarded personality trait at any place.

If it wasn’t for Edison and other great people in the history – leaders, scientists, businessmen, inventors and so on – we wouldn’t have electricity, running water, cars, TV, computers and all the other things that make our life comfortable and easy.

Imagine what the world would be like if every one of them just gave up on his ideas to try something new, to change the world and help people. Just imagine…

 

Persistence teaches you the value of success

 

Are you under the false notion that success can be achieved easily by manipulative tactics? Do you think that success can be easily bought? Do you think that success comes with just a little bit of effort? If have these untrue thoughts in your head, persistence will teach you that success is not that easy to achieve. As you keep attempting to achieve a goal over and over again, you will understand the true value of success. It will enlighten you about the amount of hard work and dedication required to make something happen, preparing you to give your best shot at everything in life if you want to be successful.

 

Persistence will help you gain experience

 

 

Being persistent means getting up after a failure, learning from your mistakes and trying again. This whole process will help you gain experience, which is vital if you want all-rounded success. Multiple number of attempts at the same thing will help you find out the things that can go wrong, the things that are crucial to a process or the things that are not required at all. This experience, which was a result of persistence, will teach you stuff that books and procedure manuals don’t.

Edison didn’t give up when he failed many times, he kept on trying which brought light to many people’s life now. He learnt from his mistakes and persisted to achieve his goal.

 

Persistence will make you aware of your weakness

 

To be successful, you need to be aware of your weaknesses and your faults. Your weaknesses will only be exposed when you analyze your failures and try to find out the things you lack to accomplish something. This is only possible if you are mentally prepared to accept failure, try again, fail again and keep trying until you iron out all your weaknesses to finally succeed. This is why being persistent is the key to success.

Edison accepted failure. He found its positive side and realized that it was something as normal as success.

 

Persistence is a very important trait to develop in life because it is intimately interlinked with one’s own personal development and self-improvement. In order to achieve something in life you need to have the persistence to keep on going and to not give up.

Persisting until death…

Steve Jobs from Apple provides another excellent example of this last point. He had been with Apple for many decades and was a key figure in helping to make Apple one of the most successful and popular companies on the planet.

However, in his later years, fate played its game. He was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He continued working at Apple and died six weeks after his final working day.
After a few years, when Jobs could no longer function normally, he resigned from Apple, writing:

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”
He passed away calmly, surrounded by family. His last words were “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

Despite suffering from ill health, Steve Jobs continued to work at Apple, when he could have very easily quit due to his illness. This is exactly what persistence is, knowing what you want and going after it with everything you’ve got until you get it.

 

 

Just like Steve Jobs, if you want to achieve real success in your life you must be willing to stick with something for the long-term and avoid the tendency to view things from a short-term perspective.

Most people who fail in life, for example, expect to become successful quickly and with minimal effort. However, you need to work hard with persistence to achieve real success in life.

“I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”

— Og Mandino

 

When you work on any big goal, your motivation can wax and wane. Sometimes you’ll feel motivated; sometimes you won’t. But it’s not your motivation that will produce results — it’s your action. The decision to persist. To make progress even when you don’t feel like it.

When you face an obstacle towards achieving your goal, think about three things: get around it, get over it or go through it. Don’t quit, because persistence is the quality that will ultimately guarantee your success.

Coconut Boxs incites persistence in your kids by the open-ended material it provides. It helps the children to develop persistence in four ways,

1. Coconut Boxs as designed provides higher-level challenges, which children need to achieve over time.
2. Coconut Boxs demands children reflect back and analyse their mistakes/shortcomings. Thus paving the way for their improvement.
3. It helps the children to stick to the goal by repetitively trying without worrying for material damage and judgement by others.
4. It encourages children not to focus on obstacles, by redirecting their attention.
   
   
   Greatness is not measured by what is accomplished. It is measured by how many times you pick yourself up and try again. So pick yourself up; be persistent and move forward!

 

 

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