Former tennis star Billie Jean King, said "...champions keep playing until they get it right."
I think this means that no one is born a champion, they work hard to get there. Football has great examples of people like this. Stars like Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo are legendary for the amount of effort they sink in on the training pitch. They just don't rock up to the pitch and turn it on. They have invested hours and hours in training, and honing their skills.
In the recent Olympic Games we see the same happening. During the games we see athletes perform magnificent feats and rallying their supporters. Our own Malaysia badminton players were a joy to watch at the games. And, they succeeded in bringing a fragmented nation together.
But each one has a backstory of hard work, sweat, and lots of tears. Because becoming a champion requires you to be ready for discomfort.
Are you?
The people who are victorious in their endeavors have kept working on things steadily until they get it right. It also means that it does not matter how many times you fail. What is pointedly more important is whether you are able to grow from your failure, by adjusting and improving your performance.
Persistence and tenacity are the vital ingredients in being a champion at anything you do. But the vast majority of folks simply do not have the patience, forbearance and courage for success.
In my work and through my business life, I see so many people limit themselves, even before they start or they give up without putting up a real tenacious fight. And they will easily rattle off a range of justifications for capitulating.
Of course, there are always complex difficulties, shortage of money, or other forms of hardship that you have to endure. But it is the natural discomfort of attempting something different or the ensuing uncertainty, which actually thwarts most people.
You either allow your insecurities to paralyse you from being persistent, or it is just that you lack the real drive and motivation to see yourself through to your goal.
Let me attest as a business owner, that developing persistence is vital to success.
When I have failed in my attempts, and believe me, I have had some spectacular failures, it has always ultimately been because it was easier for me to live in my comfort zone.
I botched things up because I couldn't take the discomfort or the uncertainty of doing something that I was unfamiliar with. And the fear of failure, debilitated me from taking the appropriate actions to win.
Consequently, my inability to be persistent resulted in that very failure I wanted to avoid.
Through experience, I understood that if I want to create change in my life, and achieve success, I had to develop and master persistence.
How do you develop this persistence that will see you cross the finish line?
You must begin with a clear purpose. What is the reason for you wanting to do, what you set out to do?
Laurence J. Peter, the Canadian educator and management theorist, best known for having formulated the Peter Principle, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their level of incompetence asserted that "…if you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else".
Business coaches and motivational speakers will advocate that you have to take massive action to get the results you want. At a fundamental level, this is correct.
However, more importantly, you must also appreciate that if you do not have a compelling purpose to want to achieve something, no amount of external motivation is going to help you develop the requisite resolve to keep going when you meet obstacles.
Personal motivation comes from a deep reason of why you want to achieve something. If you know why you're doing what you're doing, it gives you more energy to keep on moving.
In any conversation on the attributes of successful people, persistence is always mentioned. And often, as a central factor in success.
So, if you want results, be purpose driven so you are motivated to be persistent, especially when things get uncomfortable.
Are you prepared to be uncomfortable?