The concept of persistence can be personified in the natural world around you every day. The concept of being persistent in humans typically begins at birth. When you learn that crying will get you the attention that you typically need. Hopefully, as you grow older, you learn other ways to get what you want besides crying, screaming, and throwing temper tantrums.

You can also interpret persistence as an extraordinary focus on accomplishing something important. Many times we are not able to accomplish what we want on the first second or even several tries. Hopefully, you know how the attempts are made or modified slightly between each attempt, and sometimes, you may have insights into what needs to be adjusted between each attempt, and other times it’s important to get feedback from others because there can always be a detail you miss by yourself.

Recently, watching the Tony Hawk documentary, there was an opening sequence in a closing sequence of Tony Hawk attempting to hit his 900 trick one more time for the camera. He is by far a unique person because he can give himself critical feedback in between each attempt. My biggest takeaway was his unwavering dedication and intensity to being persistent until he got what he wanted to do. The dedication to nailing a trick that should be physically impossible is as persistent as it gets.

We all don’t need to be Tony Hawks of our respective industries, but we can learn to emulate the inspiring persistence you will probably find and others around you. Everyone has their own story that they are living through each day, and if you stop to get to know someone, invariably, you will find everyone has something that they have been persistent about throughout their life, which can be inspiring to you. Your goal is to stay persistent, and invariably you will inspire someone else to do the same.

Personally, the idea of being persistent is sometimes empowering as much as it can be disabling. Knowing how to balance when to pause on focusing on achievement, a to be able to focus on achievement day is as much of an art as a science. The good news is I have 24 hours each day to make that choice and to be persistent in accomplishing what needs to be done. The better news is that after each day, I get to try again in the next, and perhaps a slightly different way if I did not get the outcomes I wanted the previous day.
Take a moment to review your personal and professional goals right now. What can you focus on and be persistent until you accomplish those goals?

Let me know because you may inspire me.