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It might be obvious to some that being persistent pays off in the end. It’s a concept that it well-known, but may be a trouble spot for some. We seem to give up on things too easily on things that we start because we get discouraged too easily when things get too tough. Lately, I’ve been trying to be persistent in some of the things that I’ve started in order to reap the rewards. What I think a lot of us don’t know about persistence is that you don’t have to be feelings good, nor do things always have to be going right in the things we are trying to accomplish. In fact if things go right 100% of the time, that’s either extremely rare luck or it’s simply too good to be true. Down times happen especially on our journey to bettering ourselves. But how do we stick with something to the end knowing that it will pay off?

We are a society of ‘I want it now’ and ‘if it doesn’t feel good, I’m not gonna do it.’ It’s hard to do something that requires a lot of work. It’s always been that way, and it’ll always be that way.? But society has taught us that we should have things our way, and we should get it the easiest way possible. That’s why get rich quick schemes victimize hundreds of thousands of people daily. That’s why there are weight loss pills that claim that by taking them you’ll lose 20 pounds a week. And that’s why people go crazy when things go the wrong way.

Be persistent, and be flexible

I used to think that in order to be persistent, you have to do the same thing over and over again until whatever I’m doing gets accomplished. There have been times when I was working on school projects, and I used to try one way of solving a problem. I could’ve easily quit and just taken the easy way out, but that wouldn’t have solved the problem. So I changed my way of thinking about what persistence is, and that’s when I realized that you can be persistent and flexible at the same time.

Don’t wait anymore, just do it

I used to like to wait for things to get better before I did something, or before I fully committed to doing something. I had a job in high school working at a place temporarily and my boss saw that I did a pretty good job. He came up to me and said that he would give me a raise. After a while, that raise didn’t come for whatever reason. I wanted to go into his office and ask him about the status of my raise. Maybe it just took a while, or maybe he forgot. But every time I wanted to go into his office and ask, I got really nervous and just pushed it off. I realized that pushing it off and “waiting” until my nerves would just disappear was just unrealistic. So I just did it. I sucked it up, went into his office, kindly asked him about my raise and he responded with an apology and that he would get to it right away. My next paycheck had a little more money on it. I decided from that point on if I was in a similar situation, I would just think back to this and just go for it. Sometimes being persistent means not waiting for things to get better because then nothing would get done.

How to be more persistent

Kind of like my situation, one way is to just go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? Someone could turn you down, say no, or something else that doesn’t involved the world ending. If you end up getting hurt or rejected or embarrassed, look at it as a learning experience. So even if things don’t go your way because of your persistence, learn from it, pick up, dust off, and keep going forward.

Disregard your feelings whenever you can. It’s easy for people to let their emotions take over. But when you control your emotions you can put them aside when you’re making a decision to do something. The way you control your emotions connects to being persistent in your goals.

Keep the end in sight. When things get tough, always think about the end and how much relief it will be to be done. When I was in college, there was no better opportunity for persistence than studying for a difficult test. I knew that I would be that much closer to my degree and that was a great feeling when I thought about it. When I would study, I would get stuck quite often and would just want to skip it and move onto something else and never go back. But I knew I wouldn’t do as well on the test, so I kept at it. I thought about the finish line and I kept studying. One thing you can also do is write down the rewards and what you know will happen when it’s all over. Then when you get stuck and don’t want to persevere, take out that note and read it a few times.

If you are wanting to start a business and already have things going, write down the possibilities and exciting opportunities that will arise. When things get tough, read it a few times. Do this with anything and it will help you break through that one obstacle that’s standing in your way because it will help you keep your mind on the finish line and the exciting rewards. Being persistent and working hard pays off.

Switch things up. Sometimes the way we do things seems to get old after a while. Job hunting is one thing that can get old and boring after a while. I’ve been there. But sometimes we just have to spice things up a bit to get out of a rut. When I was looking for a job and submitting my resume, I wasn’t getting any responses. So I decided to actually change the format of my resume. I took a tiny bit of time off of applying and switched my focus to my resume and my strengths. This made a huge difference. I sent out my new resume and got back a few responses.

There are many ways of doing things, and there’s nothing wrong with going about things with different perspective. When I focused on my resume not only did I improve it to increase my chances of getting a response, it also gave me a break from doing the same old thing over and over again. I broke through the wall and it paid off. I was able to be even more persistent because of the confidence boost those responses gave me.

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The message here to keep going. You will get to the finish line if you are persistent. If there is something you want to accomplish, the only thing holding you back from getting to the finish line is yourself! Realizing will help you to become a better person and be able to pursue your dreams and goals.

Do you think persistence pays off?