It took me 40 years of living to learn that the most important character trait you can develop is perseverance. It is one of the many incredible things to learn.
The good news is that you can learn this in one minute.
I’ve summarized my life experiences into three main points that highlight why perseverance is the single most important character trait for you to develop.
Are you one that believes that perseverance can be learned? We are among that group. We also believe in suggestions for innovative thinking can boost team perseverance and creativity through effective collaboration.
In her novel, The Painted Drum, writer Louise Erdrich discusses taking risks:
“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.”
Through a series of sparks and not a single flash of insight. Certainly our way of thinking.
Incredible things to learn …. perseverance leads to mastery
A sustained effort over time will typically lead to mastery.
When I first started writing, a few of my friends laughed at my books. Rightfully so. It was full of typos, had terrible grammar and pretty mundane content. None of it was spectacular.
The perfect word to describe it: Mediocre.
And the book sales reflected that.
People will often ask, “How did you manage to get published?”
The answer is simple: Perseverance.
I spent two years writing a book, many Quora posts and 30 editorial pitches before I got published by a major media site.
Even after this momentum, the website I just launched was slow in gaining subscribers. For example, in about two months I had only signed up around 520 subscribers.
However, after those two months of churning out weekly articles, last night I had a breakthrough of 64 subscribers in just one night!
Over time my writing has improved dramatically. My writing volume has also increased. It used to take me a few days to write an article. Now I can write a short article in an hour, and the quality is better.
This all happened because I stayed the course.
So when in doubt, always remember: persevere.
It makes you mentally stronger
I’ve failed a lot.
One of my first jobs, when I was in high school, was working as a salesperson at a tuxedo shop. A few months in, I missed one of my shifts and was fired. I was really upset with myself.
I once tried to be a professional actor and met with an agent. She told me to find another career.
I guess I could have quit writing. But why do that when it’s my passion? Better to learn from my mistakes and to keep improving.
Each of these experiences helped to shape me into who I am today.
Don’t spend time regretting your past. Do focus your energy on pushing forward.
Incredible things to learn … it teaches patience
Success isn’t built overnight. It’s built over many nights. Sometimes years. That’s why you’ve got to be patient.
This doesn’t mean you don’t create and build with passion and intensity. You want that. But if you don’t have patience, you might end up giving up at a time when you’re just inches from success.
If you see meaningful progress and continuous improvement, then it may make sense to continue to persevere.
Creating something worthwhile isn’t easy. Be patient.
Learning to give awesome compliments?
How easy do you find it to pay great compliments? An authentic compliment. Difficult for you?
Seemingly a common thing, right? But difficult to do uncommonly well, don’t you agree?
As a leader or even as a peer, great compliments have never been more critically important than today. Not because they are expected, but to help in team motivation and engagement.
While everyone is wrapped up in their performance, people hardly take the time to recognize the work of others.
Whether you’re dealing with bosses, subordinates or peers, a well-placed compliment will make you valuable, noteworthy and better suited for leadership.
Why compliments?
When you recognize people’s skills and achievements, it makes you seem more selfless. Your attention to detail is appreciated.
And if you believe what some scientific studies have to say on the subject, people who pay others compliments are seen as smarter.
And more humble … a critical leadership quality.
Incredible things to learn … be specific
Understand what motivates people you work with and focus on paying compliments that will give attention to those things. For a business leader, it may be addressing and inspiring a crowd of subordinates.
For a secretary, it may be her knowledge of office details. Regardless, compliment them accordingly, in the most natural way possible.
Timing is essential
Compliments are all about timing. They are usually most effective immediately after someone does something they deserve praise for. It’s right after the fact that most people want to hear that they did well.
Let time pass, and they will calm down, or convince themselves that they did well and didn’t need anyone else’s approval.
But the timing also involves calibrating someone’s mood. If you see a co-worker in a slump, a well-placed compliment might motivate him and remind him that what he does is significant.
Get physical and mental exercise
… every single day. Yes, every single day.
Read and exercise for at least 15 – 20 minutes a day. It’s life-changing, and the body/mind needs it to function at the highest level!
You’ll feel much better mentally and physically almost instantly. The more consistent you are with it, the better and more consistent your life will become in almost every way.
Seriously, it’s very simple. Try it out. Make it a daily habit. You won’t regret it. 🙂
One-minute tip for better critical thinking
One obstacle to good critical thinking is our penchant for commitment and consistency. Once we’re on record expressing confidence in an idea, we have trouble changing our minds.
Here’s a one-minute tip that will make you a better critical-thinker and conversation partner.
Whenever you want to say “I know such and such” or “I believe such and such” or even, “I think such and such,” instead of saying, “one possibility is such and such, and here’s some evidence . . .”
It’s tough to catch yourself mid-sentence when speaking, so start with your writing instead.
This substitution does at least three good things:
- It keeps you from backing yourself into a corner. It’s much easier to change your mind if you’ve merely presented a possibility. It’s more difficult if you’ve expressed commitment to the idea.
- It makes you consider what your evidence is. More than once I’ve made this substitution and realized I didn’t have very good evidence for my claim.
- It helps to create dialogue instead of a debate. A dialogue is a cooperative venture where the conversation partners explore claims and evidence together. A debate is a competitive venture where, in the name of achieving victory, each side ignores the evidence on the other side as best it can.
Now the formula asks you to list some of the evidence FOR an idea. Ideally, you would want to explore the reasons against the idea, too. And that’s the natural next step. But this substitution gets the ball rolling.
A perfect handshake
Geoffrey Beattie, head of psychological sciences at the University of Manchester, came up with a formula for this:
If you weren’t a math major, here is the translation of this equation in plain English:
- Make eye contact throughout.
- Utter an appropriate verbal greeting.
- Make a Duchenne smile.
- Grip the person’s hand and give it a firm squeeze.
- Stand a moderate distance from the other person: not so close as to make him/her uncomfortable or so far away as to make him/her feel detached.
- Make sure your hand is cool, dry, and smooth.
- Use a medium level of vigor.
- Hold the handshake for no longer than two to three seconds.
