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Thinking about persistence, I turned to a book which has inspired me over the years – The Magic of Thinking Big, by Dr. David J. Schwartz. Persistence is only a small part of this great book but he emphasizes the importance of persistence in achieving your goals.

Persistence is a key element of success. Nothing good comes easily or without struggle. It’s the struggle itself that produces the good result because it causes growth and change. But struggle is unpleasant and uncomfortable. It gets our hands dirty. It makes us work. We might look untidy or unprofessional while struggling to make something work. It takes time to struggle while we miss using our time for more pleasant activities. In short, while we are struggling, there is very little good to say about the process and we would prefer to skip it altogether. It’s not cool.

Dr. Schwartz says that “People that have bull-dog persistence, who can grab something and not let go, have an essential success quality.”

It’s a troubling thought. There is something unpleasant about the image of a bulldog. Those teeth and the aggressive posture don’t seem to fit with achieving success. Success should look confident and comfortable but it is actually the product of getting down and dirty with our lives. Success shouldn’t look hard.

Dr. Schwartz continues with a further qualification. Persistence alone would mean continuing to do the same thing over and over again in spite of a series of failures. It is only when persistence is combined with experimentation that results occur. As an example, think about wind-up toy cars. When you wind them up and let go, they continue on a fixed course until they run down. It they encounter an obstacle; it makes no difference to them. They just keep moving in the same direction they started. Without a course change, there is no way they will get around the obstacle. They definitely embody persistence but if the goal is to move beyond an obstacle, persistence alone will not produce results. Persistence, when paired with experimentation is the key to success for Dr. Schwartz.

But how do you fit these two together? How can you be persistent if you change your techniques?

The consistency is in the goal that is driving your action. You don’t change your goal. It remains fixed throughout the entire process. Your path and techniques in reaching that goal are not fixed. You can change them again and again and so long as the objective remains constant, you continue to move closer and closer to the goal with each change. You account for the obstacles and look for a new approach that will take you there…

Dr. Schwartz suggests two ways to open your mind to experimentation while retaining your goal:

1.     “Tell yourself, there is a way.”

Don’t let yourself believe that your goal is impossible to achieve. The mind is an amazing tool. So long as you believe that there is a solution, your mind will search for it and ideas will come.

2.   “Back off and start afresh.”

Let your mind turn away from the problem and engage in some other activity. Provide an opening for new ideas to penetrate the thicket of failed attempts.

Persist in your goals. Keep them in your mind and before your eyes and believe that you will accomplish them. But be flexible and open to how you reach them.

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I found some good stuff about persistence on Digg.  You have to skip down a few pages to get to the gold.  The earlier ones  are on peripheral issues .

There was this nice one with a collection of quotes.

Who can resist Seth Godin?

And finally an inspired collection of persistent characters including Sylvester.

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It seemed like a good idea to select a word or theme to frame a week’s worth of posts. For an analytical guy like me, it seemed perfect to create a system so I won’t have to think so much. It’s just that when actually doing it, things don’t fit as neatly as I hoped. And, of course, I started with the term ‘up’ which can be played in many ways. So I got through the week and it held together. This week is proving to be more of a challenge. I have been through more than ten themes backing up, dodging and weaving through, around and over post ideas, leaving my plan in disarray.

So now with a deadline and commitment to fill my blog with valuable content, it’s put up or shut up. Do I abandon my week old tradition of tying my posts to a weekly theme? Do I revert to higgledy-piggledy, scattershot posts or do I face up to the challenge and give my readers what they demand- intelligent insight, organized material and dogged persistence?

Well I think you know the answer. I am going to continue with my plan even if it makes no sense and the connections are forced. Many plans never produce results simply because their authors lose heart and jump ship at the first breakdown rather than sticking with the ship and sinking pushing onward to their destination.

So as we enter a new week, I fearlessly proclaim the theme for this week to be:

Persistence

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Since this weeks theme is UP, what’s up with you this week?

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My first new car was bought for me by my father, the week I got out of the Army.  It was not the car I wanted.  And certainly not the one I deserved.  But it did serve me well through graduate school and well into my professional career.  There was a sporty version of the Chevy II with a big engine.  Mine was a servicable 6 cylinder (it’s amazing that a six cylinder engine used to be considered small) not the big V-8.  It did have a stick shift on the floor (my first and last).  And it was exactly the color of the one in the photo.

I was a different person after nearly two years in the Army.  Not exactly the trained killer the hippies considered me but more independent and with some income of my own from the GI Bill.  I never regarded my parents home as mine after the Army and so my Chevy II represented my independence as I began to make my own life.  I remember driving back to Connecticut listening to the ‘new’ Bob Dylan singing Lay Lady Lay, feeling  like a grownup (and don’t you think that at 27, it was about time).

I survived the Black Panther takedown in New Haven, finished my degree, met and dated my wife using my trusty Chevy II and it brought me to California once school was finished.  I finally sold it in 75.  Looking back, my father was right.  That Chevy II was the right car for me at that time in my life.

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Take any leadership class or read any leadership book and you will hear that mistakes are how you grow and progress.  That’s a hard lesson for a perfectionist like me.  It is also a very important one. Much of my life I have avoided action or decisions because I might be wrong.  The fear of being wrong, or of making a mistake kept me from making decisions and moving forward.
The error here is thinking that being wrong moves you backward and that not making a decision or taking an action keeps you in the same place.  Action of any sort moves you forward and inaction, rather than holding your position , pushes you backwards.  With action, something happens.  It may be good.  It may be bad.  Many times it is hard to know at first which it is.  Either way you have moved into new territory and you are learning more about yourself and your world. Either way you end up in a different place with more experience and better judgment.
You do want to keep some balance.  If all your decisions were bad ones then your life would quickly become a mess.  And I am sure that you know people like that. Most people are able to tell the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome and make appropriate changes in how they make decisions.  When they make these changes, they have more experience and knowledge about what happens and more confidence in their decision process.
Not only do they learn better how to deal with decisions in areas they know, they also gain confidence to make decisions in areas where they have little knowledge. And when they move into new areas and make decisions either good or bad, they gain knoweldge there which makes the next decision easier and better.
So, my experience has proved to me that I am better served by making decisions, moving on and in many cases messing up than avoiding decisions so that I will not make a mistake. This, like much else in my life, is a struggle with my ego which remains convinced that it’s all over if anybody sees me make a mistake.

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I have found that one of the most important prerequisites for being a positive person is participating; going where people are and interacting.  At least for me, I am most likely to be down when I am alone.  And it’s what I naturally choose.  I am really comfortable being a loner.  No worries about what others may be thinking.  I don’t have to put up a facade.  I can be myself.  I can be negative.
And that’s the problem.
My unvarnished self is pretty marginal.  I can be petty, self indulgent, selfish and still feel good about myself because when I am by myself there are no consequences. (Well maybe there are consequences but not immediate ones.) It feels pretty good.  I have spent a good part of my life retreating to the safety of isolation at any and every opportunity.  When I am in retreat mode, it seems like a good thing.  I eliminate challenges and protect myself from conflicts. But it’s not a good thing.
The trouble is that if that is all you know, you don’t know how it is handicapping you and more importantly you don’t know that you don’t have to be handicapped. Somewhere along the line, it because clear to me that I was my biggest problem and that indulging my weaknesses only weakened me further.  In fits and starts, I stumbled out of my cave and participated in what was going on around me.  The night I met my wife was one of those courageous moves – a story for another time.  And each move out was followed by panic and struggle to keep from running back.
Humans are incredible creatures.  We have understanding, the potential for wisdom and great emotion.  The best we can be never shows without challenge or risking our comfort. My point here is only to recommend an attitude of embracing each day and each opportunity to be part of something.  I like to think of it as showing up.  It’s what I did the night I met my wife.  And like Robert Frost tells us, that decision made all the difference.
But showing up is something that I need to do every day.  It means participating when I don’t have to or don’t think there is any benefit.  Going somewhere or doing something out of the normal pattern or taking a new responsibility or putting myself in a situation that I can’t control. It isn’t easy and I often find myself back in the cave, licking my wounds and feeling sorry for myself.  It’s just that now I understand how each hour in the cave moves me back to where I started.

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Looking for good news on Digg this week, I found these items:

Number one is this exciting breakthrough in cancer treatment.  With a Digg rating of  1684, it shows that it resonated with readers.  Patients with untreatable prostrate cancer received an experimental treatment and fully recovered.
That is one upbeat story.
Number two tells us how to be happy.  It seems that you need to be old, male and Republican.

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