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Patience and persistence work hand in hand. These are qualities that have built the world. They are responsible for the achievement of almost every goal that man has set. In this world of instant gratification, it is very important to develop these qualities.
There is a saying that goes patience is a virtue. You need to think of this saying in the real world as an investment. If for example; say you bought a thousand shares of Apple when it launched. But due to impatience, you sold those shares within a year. Those same thousand shares would be worth over a hundred thousand dollars today.
You need the patience of a farmer in your life. When a farmer plants seeds, he has to water them with frequency, he has to get rid of the weeds and he has to defend his crop against the weather and pests. He has to wait sometimes for years to get the fruit from the crops he has planted. That level of commitment takes patience.
With every goal, you need to have a farmer’s mindset.
Especially if you are planting an oak tree It takes 30 to 40 years for it to become fully grown. That seed had to have had an incredible level of persistence and patience To endure 40 long years of growth to maturity.
Think of the long-term goals in your life as an oak tree. It takes a hell of a long time to get to maturity but once it does it stands strong and tall.
Patience and persistence is like the tardigrade
What is the tardigrade? The tardigrade is an incredible creature that many people have never even heard of. It is also called the water bear and is one of the most resilient creatures on the planet. As Darwin always put it; it is not the ones who are the strongest who survive, it is the ones who are the most adaptable to change.
This creature can survive in the vacuum of space, in extreme temperatures. It is able to adapt and thrive in almost any environment, it can even survive up to 30 years without food or water, that’s how adaptable this creature is.
Tardigrades belong to an elite category of animals known as extremophiles. These are creatures that survive and thrive in extreme environments. So what can we learn from these creatures? We can learn to adapt to any environment that we are in.,
Sure there is no way a human can survive 30 years without food or water but what we can get from the tardigrade is an inspiration to persist.
If we use a modicum of this creature’s persistence in our lives we will be able to achieve almost any goal we set out to achieve. This character trait will build on itself and will get stronger, like when a body builds a muscle.
These creatures are persistent and they never give up. Evolution has made them the ultimate survivor. The tardigrade looks like a dust mite or it might even look like the Michelin man’s ugly baby cousin. Also, it has eight legs.
Persistence is necessary for success
Persistence is a characteristic that is necessary for success. Rome was not built in one day. Remember the story of the man who was actually three feet from gold and chose to give up. Both he and his colleague were mining for gold and he saw that his colleague had found a huge deposit of gold. This caused him to abandon his digging because he thought that there was no gold left. He actually sold his equipment. The person to who he sold it dug another three feet and became a millionaire. Ouch! that had to hurt, all because of lack of persistence.
The lesson from this story is; never give up within reason. If you have a dream do not turn your head to look at your opponent and what they are doing. Focus on the task at hand. You will go through many failures and endure many heartaches. Have many sleepless nights and feel a sense of foreboding when trying to achieve your goals but it’s all in the plan.
The act of overcoming these obstacles is what builds character. When future problems arise you have the wherewithal to adapt to the situation and thrive.
Tardigrades are dubbed the indestructible creature. You must become indestructible in your pursuit of your goals. Never waver, never give up. Imagine your own personal survival scenario, imagine what’s on the other side of every obstacle that you face. now imagine your resiliency building as you overcome these obstacles.
I have had days when I had to work on projects that I was almost sure I was going to fail. Persistence pulled me through in the long run.
Anyone who has ever studied to become an engineer understands the nature of the field is pulling all-nighters. I have pulled several all-nighters while working on projects that counted towards a major part of passing a course.
There is a feeling of awesomeness when you are working through the night and through persistence, you finally have a breakthrough.
Using tenacity as a tool
Always remember anything that is worth fighting for does not come easy or cheap. Tenacity develops over time, a prime example of this is a waterfall that is dammed. No matter how long it takes, the water will find a way to break through the wall of the dam. It might take 5 years it might take 100 years but it is inevitable. As long as the waterfall continues to flow it will break through the dam it is only a matter of time.
According to motivational speaker, Jim Rohn success takes patience and persistence. It is only with the passage of time that certain skills develop and are solidified.
A baby learns to walk through persistence. They fall over and over again but everything they do they pick themselves up and try again. A baby doesn’t know the meaning of the words quit and fail they only know instinct. If the youngest of us is able to have this level of grit it should give us cause to think, God created us to be able to adapt.
If you look at our bodies we are able to change from a skinny state to a muscular state by working out. Our brains have been built with the greatest biological advantage; that is to learn.
Our ancestors had to persist against and overcome the elements to survive. Today we as humans are the most formidable group on the planet because of our ability to adapt and persist. It took us centuries to come up with transportation like the locomotive but each invention built on itself. From the bicycle to the motorcycle to the motor vehicle.
Each inventor had to be patient because they knew results would come in time. The inventor of the light bulb Thomas Edison is often quoted as having found ten thousand ways of not creating the light bulb before he eventually got his breakthrough.
What each person has to consider in our lives is the element of time. Time is a component that is needed when trying to develop patience and persistence. It takes time for things to grow, it takes time for skills to develop it takes time for goals to solidify.
Because time is so crucial it is why you must apply urgency to your goals. The sooner you start investing the larger the compound interest will be. Time is a tool that you can use to your benefit especially when you are young. Fail often while you are young but don’t become a failure. You become a failure by not persisting.
So don’t quit on yourself. If you are a techie you could look at how technology has advanced just over the last 10 years and you will see improvement over improvement. Remember the phones that were available in the year 2000? Now, look at everything we can do through small iterations year over year look where we are and it’s only getting better. This is the mindset you have to apply to your life. Think of yourself as version 1.0 and by making small iterations.
Patience and persistence development tips.
Before we start listing out the tips I would like to tell a story about persistence. There was a woman some time ago who wrote a book for children and tried to get it published, she started her book on a napkin but no matter where she went with her idea nobody wanted to publish her stories. She faced rejection a total of 12 times before she got her book published. She had been down on her luck and struggling. Today she has written 6 sequels to that book and her stories are a global phenomenon oh yeah and she is now a billionaire. I am of course talking about J.K. Rowling.
Many millionaires and billionaires came from humble beginnings, some like Warren Buffet did not achieve vast wealth until much later in life. All used the principles of patience and persistence and these are the tips I wish to share with you today:
Conclusion
The habits of patience and persistence in today’s world can tend to be something of a lost art form. However, if you want to build anything that lasts these two qualities should be your foundation. If you would like to know how your environment affects your mental health check out my other article on this.
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