Persistence NOT Perfection!

Achieving anything in life is very rarely down to luck or getting it right first time, it more often comes from getting it wrong and repeating it until we get it right. Think back to a baby trying to walk, they stumble and fall thousands of times, but they keep getting up until it’s automatic. Why??? That’s how everyone else gets around, on two legs, so that’s the example and the parent will praise every time they achieve it as well as supporting them as they try. That helps to reinforce the desired behaviour.

Consider now, learning the various subjects taught at school, there will be some you loved and also some you loathed, you still needed to learn them all some were just naturally easier than others, some you had to work harder at and exams, regardless of how you felt about them, we had to revise, refresh, re-read and study for hours in order to achieve our best results

Moving on in life, driving lessons!!! Very few people get in a car for the first time and are able to steer, uses the pedals and the gear stick at the same time whilst looking at the road ahead. It takes many times to master the skills, and I’m sure there were times when it felt like we were never going to be able to pass the test. But as before we kept trying and low and behold….. We DID IT!!

Our first job and that awful dread in the pit of your stomach, everyone else knew what they were doing – except us! Again, we watched and learned and yes we made mistakes, but we knew we needed to persevere if it’s the job we wanted. Not too much time later, it’s second nature and we probably can’t imagine why we ever worried about it at all.

Often our experience and knowledge is shared with others when they too are finding life a challenge.

No mountain explorer ever conquered the peak without first putting in hours/days/weeks/months/year of training first! – No great invention was ever created without many failures first. In fact nothing great was achieved first time… Every single thing worth having/doing took time, energy, effort and mistakes in fact PERSISTENCE is the magic, it’s the not knowing when to quit, the belief that it WILL be worth it, actually YOU are Worth it.

I have not failed.

I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work

thomas edision

So let’s channel those beliefs, thoughts and knowledge and apply it to our challenge of transforming ourselves to become the best we can possibly be, that it’s not all about being perfect as that’s unrealistic, it’s being PERSISTENT – and we’ve ALL had plenty of experience at doing that!!!!!

We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future

Steve maraboli