The Perseverance Gap
By: C. C. Francis
Tags: Leadership, Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Life, Self

1 — Believe in yourself.

If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you either.

Know your goal. Know what is most important to you. Keep it specific. Keep it clear.

Remind yourself — how will I feel if I don’t accomplish this goal?

Every time you’re tempted to quit, remember that feeling.

Recognize doubt when it happens. (And it will.)

Separate doubt from what you’re doing in the present moment.

You can’t stop doubt, but you can spot it and put it aside.

Learn from the past and future, but stay grounded in the present.

Keep yourself appropriately engaged in what you’re doing. Don’t get too lost in the past or future.

Limit contact with people who doubt you, or who cause you to doubt yourself.

How do you feel when you talk to certain people? Do some “friends” or family cause you to doubt your goals? Have you failed to meet their definitions of success? They’re trying to impose their goals onto you. Contact with them can sow doubt.

Are there people who encourage you? Are there those who see your inner potential, and who push you to keep striving for it? You’ve found your team.

Adjust your social habits based on how contact with others shifts your emotional landscape. Gravitate towards those who align with your goals.

Keep track of your outlook — and what helps and hinders it.

If you don’t maintain a growth mindset, you won’t persist, and you won’t succeed.

Do what you need to do to keep your mind in the fight.

Be grateful for what you have.

Gratitude is an antidote to fear.

Recognize what you already have, and what you and others stand to gain from your achieving your goals.

Show respect, even to those who have wronged you.

Service is behind every great value proposition in history. No one looks up to ego, meanness, or vitriol.

Your belief in yourself is a resource, to be watched and replenished. You are the only one responsible for it.

2 — Craft your environment for productivity.

Leaders create an environment for sustained success.

Entrepreneurs learn to “lead” themselves — creating an environment for success in their everyday lives.

Know what environments lead to success and lead to failure. If you know that turning the TV on will cause you to waste an hour you don’t have, do something else (and calendar that hour). If you know that going on Facebook or Twitter will upset you, keep it turned off.

Structure your time. Be organized and disciplined.

Environment is a greater influence on us than we like to imagine.

“Beautiful environments create beautiful kids. Prisons create prisoners.” -Bill Strickland

This carries into the physical world, too. What does your house look like? Your physical environment mirrors your psyche. When you organize your physical environment, you also organize your mind.

“There’s no difference between you and what you experience.” -Jordan Peterson

Organize your time and space. Because if you don’t, you’ll pay for the disorganized state. And so will everyone in your orbit.

The next time you have a bit of free time, look around for something wrong with your house. Spend 15 minutes to improve it. You may be surprised how much more productive you are after that.

Create a beautiful environment, and create something beautiful.

3 — Adapt.

Always know what you’re doing, and why.

If something isn’t working for you, make a strategy. With timelines.

Sometimes it’s best to keep trying the same thing and see if time is a factor. Sometimes it’s best to change course. Either way, be deliberate. Be thoughtful.

Remember that most of the difficulty in starting anything new happens at the beginning — specifically in the first 90 days. Pay attention to your habits and your results. This will give you an idea of when adaptation is appropriate. Be open to trying new things, with an eye to how these shape your effectiveness.

Don’t be too results-oriented when you’re trying something new. You’re competing against established players, and you have different advantages and disadvantages. You have a steeper learning curve, more possibility, and more areas to explore. They have a head start and more resources.

Always be learning, and always be growing. Whatever you do, keep going.