Pillars of Persistence

Welcome to seeds of success. Today’s personal development will be looking at persistence. Persistence is one virtue that great achievers habitualize. It's interesting to know that people don’t give up only when they face opposition. There are three times when people give up. They could give up at the face of opposition, they could give up when they feel they have achieved a reasonable percentage of a project so they think they know how the completed version will look like, and thirdly people give up after first success. The first is common, the second is pernicious and the third is just ridiculous.

Persistence is not a natural occurring trait, but like many other virtues it is developed. Persistence is one of the key pillars of personal development but on what does persistence stand? There are three important pillars of persistence.

1. Hope: every act of persistence reclines upon a given hope. Nobody will continue giving time, effort and resources into an obviously hopeless venture. It is said that where there is life there is hope but where there is hope then there is the will and strength for persistence to hold through. But what is hope? Hope is not wishing that help will come; it is knowing it. A life to be pitied is not the one who has lost possession, family, friends, good reputation nor the one who has lost arms and legs, sight or hearing, but the one who has totally lost hope in living. Hope is a cardinal factor not only for persistence but in living.

2. A worthy goal: the achievability of a goal is determined not only by the individual whose objective it is to achieve the goal, but on the worthiness and importance of the goal. Psychologically you give yourself a reason to give up when your goal is not worth the effort, risk and resources to persist all the way in achieving it. And that way it is hard to keep up the will and strength of your persistence. For persistence to hold through the many obstacles and opposing forces, it must rest on a sure bet that the goal is worth it.

3. Habit: habits are very important determinants in the formation of character and eventually the direction of one's life. It is very important that we choose wisely and form habits consciously. People who give up don’t do so just because they like to be quitters, knowing that quitters are referred to as losers. They usually do because they have formed the habit of quitting when things seem not to be working out well. On the other hand there are others who through conscious efforts learned the discipline of not being easy quitters at the face of difficulty. Your persistence or in-persistence drives towards the direction of the habits you have built about it over time.

As you work to achieve your goals, let your persistence stand on firm pillars to pull you through the obstacles and opposition that will come your way.

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog on seeds of success. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Have a great day.

3 Keys To Keep Up With A Goal

Everyday day is a seed, it comes with opportunity enough to solve problems, meet needs and improve self. A society is only as improved and developed as its inhabitants are informed and developed. It is like a system, where one person's improvement can influence that of the whole. In the strive to meet daily challenges, amidst much commitments, commitments are miss committed. Like in a football game, the objective of each team is to hit the goal as many times as possible to win (as long as they do this more than their opponent). But some games sadly end barren. And one would wonder a full match could not produce a goal. Your ability to see patterns and understand them determines passage, in the maze of affairs. Like in a football game, each team is strategically structured to stop the other from scoring while they themselves work to score. A team will definitely score when they see the pattern through the other team's opposition. Everything in life has a pattern. That's why success is not always of strength or skill, but working according to the natural laws about anything. There are three simple yet important keys that will help one keep track of one's goal, unfavorable situations not withstanding

1. Focus: when you find purpose, focus on it. This is according to the law of sequence. First things first, you can't focus on what you don't see; you can't take what you have not discovered. It's one thing to have a goal; it's another to have another goal. There will always be goals to achieve. As long as there is progress in any venture there would be new problems and innovative demands. For these to be met, goals sometimes need to be set amidst existing ones thereby increasing commitment and possibility of losing sight on the most important things. When it gets tough in football match, a team might lose focus on goals while trying to handle the surging offense of the other team. The sun will burn out flesh with the help of a convex lens, ordinarily it can't. You must not necessarily abandon every other commitment just to achieve one goal, that's not wise, is it? Focus in concise definition is giving each goal or commitment the justified required attention in its given time.

2. Consistency: with consistent heat, a stone will dissolve in boiling water. There is no progress in inconsistency. You will be a pioneer in what you initiated, but if you start a thing and show consistent improvement over time you will perfect in it. Consistency is not mediocrity. Mediocrity is maintaining the status quo (even when the status quo is below standard). Consistence is continual progress no matter how slow or gradual.

3. Persistence: consistency is not always possible without persistence. Consistent progress is not without obstacles and failures but it's in the ability to rise and still improve. With persistence, consistent heat will dissolve a stone in boiling water; that's a proverb anyway. One cardinal virtue and common factor in every worthy achievement is you guessed right, determination. As much as I know it is not always an inborn virtue, it's developed like many other virtues. The world will wait for a determined man.

He is not in haste

Time is not always against him
Usually he is against time
With consistent determination he focus on the goal
To achieve it
The world will wait for him
Because he rides on the back of three
Three cardinal virtues that nature respects.

4 Factors In Building A Foundation For Success

Taking a good look at the society today, you will find people with different levels of acquisition and success. However, the interesting thing is that each and every one of us shares one selfish, common goal: “to be successful”. But at the long run majority of those who share this goal don’t get to achieve the level of success they desire. This phenomenon has led to a lot of questions: Does success really have secrets? Why do majority who seek after success fail to achieve it at the level they desire?
As a matter of fact I met a colleague. His statements created further necessity to look into questions like the ones above. Is it true that most people are destined to be poor and other privileged few rich? These questions made me to look into the subject of success.
The objective of this article is to create the awareness that success can be initiated by our conscious effort to assume responsibility…as well as apply the natural laws of success; and to motivate us towards taking the necessary steps and the right approach that will put us in the path of success.

1. SELF DISCOVERY AND REALIZATION: We start existing the moment we are born, but we begin to live the very moment we discover our purpose of existence in first place.

What's the need for self discovery?
*Each individual has in him talent enough to live a comfortable life.
*Where purpose is not known the pursuit for significance takes over.
*Self discovery helps you define your fundamental objectives.
*Self discovery helps you ascertain either your progress or decline i.e. you must who you currently are, where you are and what level you operate; in order to define and design that you ought to be.
*It helps maintain focus (don’t put in front of you that you don’t want in you)
*Focusing on God’s words is necessary to fulfill God’s purpose.

LIVING ACCORDING TO PRINCIPLES AND NOT METHODS:
Principles are basically the underlying natural laws that control the success of a system. Method on the other hand is the manifestation of played out principles. We can view principles as the lightening and methods thunder. Some basic principles to consider include:
Principle of sowing and reaping
Preparation before undertaking, this was well illustrated by the 10 virgins biblical virgins.
Principle of timing: time is the most convertible currency you have already to trade for what you want. There is always someone to pay for the time you invested
Principle of promotion: Dream for it, picture it, produce for it, patiently wait for it.
Principle of sequence, this is clearly observed in the creation of the world. There is the principle of first thing first. Sense before wisdom proverb 17:16
Principle of obedience (1 king 2:1-4) 1chorin22:12
Principle of using and loosing Mt 25:14-28
Principle of giving and receiving 1king 17:2 etc

Why do we need to live by principles?
They are natural laws that cannot be broken, methods are bound to fail
When you live by principles, you align yourself to achieve the desired success.
It put you in the path of opportunity.
One secret of success in any aspect of life is to know first, the principle that governs the system in which you operate. The law of integrative complexity says that individual who can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in any field soon rises to the top of the field.

Never give up: This is a common factor in every great achievement. A man is not measured only by the amounts of victories won, but by the number of obstacles he overcomes to finally stand.
Highly successful people don’t exhibit the habit of giving in to adversity. Failure cannot cope with persistence.

Add skill to your ability: competence could be refered to as one applicable meaning of skill. The essential element of any skill Is the ability to implement sequences of choices to achieve objectives. Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings; He won’t serve obscure men(Pr22:29). Talent can go as much as getting you a thing, but skill helps you to keep it. People pay for skill not talent, skill basically is “how to do…”
Out of all skills there is one common skill, it is the mind skill.
The power which resides in you is new in nature and none but you know that which you can do. Until you search to discover it you might never know your purpose. Mind skill has to do with harnessing the minds potential.

The Secretes Of Growth And Personal Development

Why do people never grow? They complain at the face of every challenge, even when they are familiar challenges they have overcome in time past and are capable of overcoming now; they just choose to complain. Don’t complain over what you have no intention to change. Growth is one thing everybody wants, whether in business, career, family or in any field one might possibly think of. The opposite of growth is depreciation and it doesn’t take long before a thing dies when it starts depreciating. The world is fast moving on and leaving behind everything that fails to grow with it. This article is designed to reveal the crucial and fundamental things to be done for growth to take place. Anybody that desires growth in any field he operates in, needs to understand that like success growth is not accidental neither is it spontaneous. A writer wrote, “except for the books you read and the people you meet, you will remain in five years time the same person you are now.” Some people hope to reach great heights and attain enviable positions, which is a good thing to do, but very few take interest in developing themselves first. You have to be built up to stay up, if you jump up you will come down.
Growth begins from the mind and grows from there. Guard your mind with all diligence for out of it comes the issues of life, even those that will eventually produce your growth.

#1 desire growth: if your desire is pale and flabby, your achievement will follow that same hue and consistency. An earnest desire for growth is very essential before anything else will take place at all. Have that desire to improve in your field of choice. Your desire for growth is far more important than you realize. He who intends to grow must first desire it and then do all it takes to achieve it.

#2 believe in yourself: lack of self believe is one reason why a lot of people don’t get to achieve what they want even when they can. In the article “how to gain the trust and confidence of others”, I talked about self confidence and believing in oneself. You can get the whole world to believe in you, but if you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t achieve what is expected of you. What matters is you believing in yourself not who believes in you. Don’t think this is the best you can be, no matter how worse you are don’t even think you cant grow above that. I met a man who was telling me that one can’t change ones destiny. He had been through a lot in life and he has done all he could without breakthrough. Then he came to that conclusion. I have seen lots of people far worse than he; they defied the odds to grow beyond their weakness. The truth is if you think and believe you can, then you can but if you cant then you won’t.

#3 educate yourself: education does not only lie in the four walls of an institution. You can grow yourself beyond expectation outside an institution. Great men that have lived on this earth have. The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself. –Gibbon. The best way to be relevant in a fast and demanding world is by educating yourself. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for growth and success in any field.

#4 practice, practice, practice: the key to perfection and excellence is practice after learning. Even if you learn all you want without practicing it, there is possibly no way you can perfect in it. Ask any expert in their field how they got their level of perfection, and they will tell you “practice and more practice”. It is not for sports people alone, anybody who learns must practice to grow, practice to be who you want to be. You don’t grow when you learn, train without competing or showing it. Because in competing, problems are discovered. Problems spot out imperfection and with that, a wise person will know what to do.

#5 develop when you DON’T: strive to grow. Develop yourself by discovering one new thing every day (DON’T). That way you grow with each passing day. Condition your mind to be receptive to discovering new things, new methods, new ideas and you will be sure to grow with each passing day. Remember, you are king in what you discover.

#6 self discipline: your ability to determine your highest priority and then work on it until it is completed is the primary test of self discipline, willpower and personal character. People tend to resent things that will make them leave their comfort zone. And this is a big problem to growth and development. To achieve our goals, sometimes we have to do and take certain measures that we are not comfortable with. If self discipline is not in your tool box for achieving success in life, do all you can to get it, for it is the ability to make yourself do what you should, when you should, whether you feel like it or not.

#7 get a coach: some people need as little as someone to advice them what to do for them to grow past their present point. If you can attain the height you so desire, then getting a coach to help you is not a bad decision. If a coach is what you need to develop yourself and grow beyond your status qou, get one.

#8 there is need for intelligence: you must be intelligent enough not just to know the right thing to do, or the wrong thing not to do, but to know what is appropriate and to do it. Applying what you know require intelligence.

#9 don’t be content with the level you currently operate: don’t maintain the status qou, rather improve it. You will be tying down yourself as well as inhibiting the possibility of further development if you think where you are is “it”. Keep growing, for that is the best way to avoid deterioration.

#10 get around people who are already there: you cant get past what you don’t see. A good way to get to where you want to be is by getting around those that are already there and learning from them. You cant fly with the eagles if you keep scratching with the chickens.

#11 bear your purpose in mind and meditate on it. You must picture yourself at that expected level, by meditating on what you want to achieve (growth and development), you generate more interest towards it and by power of meditation you gain valuable ideas to achieve it. For where your heart is, there you put your treasure and resources. If the dream is held close to heart and imagination is applied to what is at hand, everything is possible.

#12 invest your resources towards your growth. A lot of people want to get everything for free. But if you are waiting for free you might have to wait for a very long time. If you take your development seriously, you will do all it takes to achieve it. Invest your time, money and effort in developing yourself or be left behind by a world that doesn’t tolerate mediocrity, neither does it wait for anyone.

#13 don’t grow wild. Wild trees produce wild fruits. You don’t want to harm people, do you? Be intelligent and grow well not wild.

Don’t take others as a milestone for your development, if you will ever grow past them. One way to be very inefficient is to live in past glories. Grow with every challenge and opposition, an intelligent person will from his challenge spot out his need. Like the body needs food to grow the mind also need something to feed on, that keeps it in positive and productive shape in order to grow. It is very important not to feed the mind with yesterdays failure if you want to achieve tomorrow’s success. Grow your mind first, for when the head pulls through, the whole body follows. Be willing to pay the price for growth, personal development takes time but there is discipline in waiting for something that is coming to you especially if you have done all to achieve it. Don’t spend the whole time focusing on your weaknesses while depriving your strengths, thereby turning your strength into part of your weakness. Efficiency and effectiveness is increased when people lay more emphasis on their strength while working gradually to improve an d strengthen their weaknesses. People are more productive, happier and creative when utilizing their strength?