6 Powerful Ways to Become More Persistent (And Never Quit Again)

Most of us are great at setting goals, but not at achieving them.

Whether it’s starting a new business, learning a new language, or mastering an instrument — we love to start things without finishing. One of the biggest reasons why we never achieve our goals is due to a lack of motivation and persistency.

We start out with an abundance of optimism about the journey, without fully being mentally prepared for the inevitable obstacles ahead. As Tony Robbins quotes, “success in anything is 80% psychology, and 20% mechanics.”

Let’s uncover the 6 powerful ways to become more persistent, so you’ll never quit again.

1. Have a vision bigger than yourself

It all starts with this first step.

Without a bigger vision and purpose that is greater than yourself, you’ll quit at the initial stages of difficulty, as you will inevitably be knocked down.

However, when you’re achieving something for a purpose outside of yourself, the pressure of accountability alone will push you further than a purpose that is self-centered.

For example, if you’re learning a language in order to have a deeper connection with your life partner, you’re much more likely to persist because your relationship is on the line.

Or if you’re trying to lose weight, think about how confident, joyful, and happy you will feel, and how that will affect the loved ones around you.

Shifting from a self-centered goal to a bigger purpose that affects those you love helps you focus on what you will get out of it, instead of how hard it is.

2. Build a support team

As the popular saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

The top performers in the world all have a support team to keep them motivated and persistent, from personal coaches, employees, assistants, mentors, accountability partners — the list goes on.

More importantly, you should surround yourself with individuals who have already achieved what you want to achieve. Not only will this affect your speed of learning, but science has shown that it will impact your persistency and resiliency when things get difficult. When you have a clearly-defined purpose, with a state of certainty that you can achieve it, you influence a system in our body called the reticular activating system (RAS), that helps our brains decide what information to focus on and what to delete.

In summary, your mind starts to focus your energy on achieving the goal at hand, instead of unhelpful distractions like doubts and fears.

3. Have a Growth Mindset

In order to achieve our goals, we often have to get out of our own way.

The author of Mindset, Carol Dweck, spent twenty years researching how our mindset affects success. The research claims that individuals either have the growth mindset, where you thrive on challenges to achieve success, or the fixed mindset, where you think you were born into natural intelligence and tlaent. Dweck concluded that those with the growth mindset led happier relationships, achieved more success in the classroom, and were much more persistent through difficulties.

In other words, we should focus on celebrating small wins and progress, knowing that we are continuing to improve, rather than having lofty expectations.

4. Schedule it

The most successful people in the world, from billionaire entrepreneurs, Olympic athletes, and world-class learners, all use schedules to priortize their day.

Why not a to-do list?

According to a researcher Kevin Kruse, there are a few key weaknesses of a to-do list:

• Doesn’t account for time. When we have a long list of tasks, we tend to tackle those that can be completed quickly in a few minutes, leaving the longer items left undone. Research from the company iDoneThis indicates that 41% of all to-do list items are never completed!
• Doesn’t distinguish between urgent and important. Once again, our impulse is to fight the urgent and ignore the important. (Are you overdue for your next colonoscopy or mammogram?)
• Contribute to stress. In what’s known in psychology as the Zeigarnik effect, unfinished tasks contribute to intrusive, uncontrolled thoughts. It’s no wonder we feel so overwhelmed in the day, but fight insomnia at night.

Instead we should focus on scheduling our priorities, such as reviewing your Spanish common words, practicing the drums, or writing 500 words for your upcoming book.

What doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done.

5. Teach Others

Have you ever taught something you learned to someone, and found it easier to remember in the future?

This is because when we teach something to someone, our brain is able to register the information more effectively than simply reading about it.

As research shows, it turns out that people retain:

5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from a lecture.
10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading.
20% of what they learn from audio-visual.
30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration
50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned.
90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately

This research finding is especially relevant for those wanting to master a new skill.

If you’re wanting to improve your communication skills, don’t just watch others do it, you need to immediately use what you’ve learned.

If you’re learning a new language, instead of using one-sided interactions like audio tapes or mobile apps, work with a language teacher or conversation exchange partner to practice what you’re learning.

The key to learning with persistency is to use it (or lose it).

6. Have stakes

Why are we less likely to be late to a business meeting than a meeting with our friends? Because the former could get us fired.

As humans, we’re naturally more motivated to commit when there is a consequence or a stake, even if it’s a friendly one.

Research shows that we are three times the more influenced by negative consequences than positive consequences, so stakes such as losing money is a powerful incentive to use against yourself.

You can either make a friendly bet with a friend, who will keep you honest, or use progam like StickK, where you can set a specific goal with a referee to monitor you, and donate money to a charity as a consequence for not succeeding.

The key is to get someone involved from your support team, and share your goals publicly. The social pressure of affecting your reputation alone will push you further than you can imagine.

Over to you

What’s a goal or new skill you’re trying to persist through?
Which of these strategies will you use to achieve it?

I’d love to hear from you below!

The post 6 Powerful Ways to Become More Persistent (And Never Quit Again) appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.