When should you keep on keeping on and when should you change tactics? That’s the dilemma when it comes to having success in your life and your business.
To quote “The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard and give up at the first signs of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on despite all opposition until they attain their goal. Weak desires produce weak results.”
Napoleon Hill, Author: Think and Grow Rich
At the other end of this spectrum is the following. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein
Both great quotes from great people. While there is nothing like persistence in getting things done, is persistence doing the same thing over and over again? Or does persistence mean not giving up, if something isn’t working, finding another way to go at the problem?
What do you think? What experiences have you had on this question?
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Tony – great post, this really gets to the heart of making progress versus giving up.
No matter what it is you achieve in your life, rarely does it happen on the very first try.
Yet, when we get wound up and want to achieve something, you are right, the first (or second) setback tends to lead to confusion, frustration and often – giving up.
What if we went in with the mindset that we are going to have to go through an average of 4-5 setbacks per goal?
Meaning that we start something looking forward to setbacks in order that we can learn from them and move ahead in a better direction.
This concept means that we both stay persistant AND we don’t keep banging our head against the wall – what do you think?
Jeff
What great insight Jeff. If only everything worked the first time, what a world this would be. But it rarely does and persistence pays off.
But sometimes we have to take a look at what we are doing and make changes to our plan. I think we need to do both, persist and be open to change. Thanks for your comment,
Tony
Sometimes, when you want something really badly, but its just not working out, you feel like you’re butting your head up against a wall… Very frustrating!
Usually an indication that there might not be anything wrong with your plan, but there might be something that you can change about your attitude about the project, and the feeling place it’s coming from!
When we try to do something from a place of frustration and despiration, our plan will probably not work…
But when we do something out of love and passion, whether your plan works out the way you wanted it to or not (chances are it worked out even better than you imagined), you will always end up feeling satisfied and fulfilled!
So if a project is not working out and you don’t know what to do, maybe take a step back and figure out how you’re feeling about the whole thing, and make changes to how you see yourself in relation to your dreams, then try again and see your dreams flourish!
Does this make any sense?
It can be very frustrating at times, and I do understand what you mean. And yes, what you say makes a lot of sense. Thanks Genevieve!
Tony, this is a great post. I agree with the view that persistent pays. The Bible in Philippians 3:12 says ‘I have not yet reached my goal,……. so I press on …..’ Apostle Paul was advising that once the goal is not reached, there is no need to quit. However, this does not mean that there cannot be variation. I think you can stick to your goals but you can vary the tactics to achieve them. Will this not work, Tony?
In addition to having the flexibility to change tactics, it is also important to have good judgement to decide when a goal needs to be changed if one does not have the talent to attain the specified goal in mind. Sometimes working harder or working differently at a goal does not cut it if the required talent is non existent.
Hum… I would have saved a lot of time and effort had I known this when I was younger. The wisdom I have gained in recognizing the red flags which indicate I’m banging my head on an unattainable goal have made me more decisive and efficient. Sometimes we need to know when it’s time to quit and move on to something else.
I used to read a book from start to finish once I started it. For some reason I felt I had to finish it even if I didn’t like it after a few chapters.
Now I realize that it is ok to drop a book and move on to a new one. Kind of the same philosophy about what you are talking about, eh Francoise?
Great points about being honest with yourself and recognizing when you need to change course a little to move ahead.
This takes some pretty honest and objective thinking on our part to put some milestones or checkpoints we can track to.
If we are not reaching those, then we need to change course.
It really helps again to go into your journey toward a goal expecting setbacks & knowing you will have to change course using the feedback you get along the way…
Always a work in progress aren’t we?
Hi Tony,
Your analogy about reading a book from start to finish even though you don’t like it covers what I mean. Hum, I used to do that with books too… not to mention with almost every other aspect of my life.
Life is too short and too long to be doing what you don’t like (or aren’t good at).