6 Ways to Develop Persistence for Your Success

6 Ways to Develop Persistence for Your Success

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job. – Napoleon Hill

Developing and maintaining persistence is a critical skill to success. It is easier to relax and do nothing, or just live in our comfort zone, rather than face the uncertainty and discomfort of pursuing and working tirelessly towards our goals. For many people, particularly entrepreneurs, the idea of failure and struggle is a tough pill to swallow!

However, if you want to create change in your life and achieve success, it is essential to develop and master persistence. Here are 6 ways to help you develop persistence:

  1.  Identify Your Needs, Wants and Desires

If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.  – Lawrence J. Peter

Before you can develop persistence and eventually achieve success, you need to first identify your needs, wants or desires (Goals). You can do this by simply writing down the specific things that you want to have or accomplish. List all of your needs, wants, and desires regardless of how hard or impossible they seem to achieve at the present moment. These goals will act as a compass to help direct you and your actions to where you want to be. Writing down your needs, wants, and desires will also allow you to look back and reflect on what you really want. This will provide the motivation and encouragement needed, at times, when you have failure and setbacks; because it will happen. 

  1.   Figure Out What Your Motivation Is

Motivation comes from within, and it is the deep reason or cause of why we want to achieve or have something. If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, it gives you more energy and conviction to keep pushing forward towards the attainment of your goals (needs, wants, and desires).

For an instance, if you want to build a successful and profitable Home Business, it takes time, energy, sacrifice, and patience. If you don’t have enough motivation, a reason why you need to build a business, you most likely will never take the actions necessary to build the business. However, if you’re motivated by the thought of having time and money freedom, as well as influencing and teaching millions of entrepreneurs, only then will you keep pushing yourself to work on building your business.

  1.  Outline Your Action Steps (Game plan)

Identifying your needs, wants, and desires paints the picture of what you want to achieve. Determining what your motivation is shows the reasons why you want to achieve your needs, wants, an desires. Once you know your “what” and “why”, outlining your action steps is necessary to know how you will be able to achieve your goals.

When you know how to get what you want, it makes it easier to achieve, and makes it more realistic in your mind. Knowing the “how” is only part of the equation, however. You will then need to pinpoint and plan what action steps need to be done on your part to reach your goals. It is important to be very specific on each action step that you need to take. For example, “Share your business opportunity to 5 prospects per week.” This would be a very specific action step that you can do in order to grow your business. How many action steps can you think of to help quicken the growth of your business? Select them, and then get to work on them!

  1.  Keep a Positive Mental Attitude

The road to success is not easy. In fact, it is down right challenging! This is why so few people succeed; they give up too early because they don’t believe that they can succeed. Many times it is because of the lack of a Positive Mental Attitude. There will be many times that you will stare into the eyes of defeat and failure. If you do not have a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), you will succumb to negative thoughts, fear, and doubts of not only yourself, but of others as well. I talk about the importance of having a Positive Mental Attitude in several other posts throughout my blog.

In order to develop persistence and eventually succeed in your endeavor, it is critical to always maintain a positive mental attitude regardless of your situation. Keep your thoughts maintained on taking consistent action towards your goals. Avoid negative thoughts and feelings at all cost, because it will ruin your focus and persistence needed to achieve your goals

  1.  Build A Mastermind Group

A Mastermind Group consists of people who can help you succeed and achieve your goal. Many times they are people that share similar goals and dreams or they can even be your mentors. Be sure to choose this group of people carefully. If possible, include only those who can give you unbiased judgments and who also has a Positive Mental Attitude. You can’t afford to waste your time and energy listening to cynical advice and pessimistic people. These types of people will not help you succeed. Instead, they will drain your energy and confidence which will eventually lead to your failure.

  1.  Develop Discipline and Good Habits

All of your goal-setting and planning will go to waste if you don’t develop discipline and good habits.

There will be plenty of road blocks and challenges that will come your way to distract you from moving toward and achieving your goals. Without the proper discipline and habits in place to keep you focused, it will be easy for you to simply give up, or get so far off track that it will be hard for you to get back on the road to your success. Maintaining discipline and good habits can help you stay the course, even when difficulties arise!

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. – Jim Rohn

Persistence is a key success principle you must partake in to achieve your goals and dreams. Commit to use and learn these 6 ways to help you develop persistence and you will become unstoppable! I believe in you :) 

What other ways can you add to this list that will help to develop persistence?

To Your Success!

Ken Cloutier

 

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Action Is The Key!

Every goal, every dream, and every success that we achieve comes about by action. Most people want success and have a plan on how to achieve that success.They think about everything that they have to do and write down an action plan but fail to do the one thing that will help them get where they want to and that is take action.

The fact is, the very action that brings about success or goal achievement is usually the action that moves people out of their comfort zone. The reason why most people don’t take action is that they do not want to get out of their comfort zone. It is easier to stay put than to put themselves in a position to fail and look bad. The people who are willing to step out of their comfort zone are generally the same people who go on to achieve great success.

So how do you take action if you are somebody who likes to think and ponder before moving forward? I like to describe this as paralysis by analysis. These individuals think about the positives and negatives of their decision but never take any action to make their goals happen. If you fall into this category, here is a way that you can begin to take action but make your thoughts more productive: Have your thoughts always lean toward taking action. In other words, your thoughts should be on how can I achieve these goals rather than all of the obstacles that are in the way of achieving the goals. Take the “how can I?” approach and not the “I can’t!” attitude. 

For those of you that fall into the take action category but don’t really think too far ahead (that is me), make sure that you are not just busy trying to achieve your goals, etc, but that you are productive. We all have 24 hours in a day. Why is it that some people become so successful while others barely get by? It is not just that they are busy taking action to become successful, but they are productive. They are getting results. If your schedule is filled with all sorts of appointments but you are no further along today than you were a month ago, chances are you have just been busy and not productive. Keep this in mind as you are taking action, is your action taking you closer to accomplishing your goals or moving you further away. That is how you can tell if you are just being busy or being productive.

I hope that you are taking action and are willing to move out of your comfort zone. There is so much more outside of your comfort zone than what lies in it, and your success is so much closer to you than you think. Action is the key to making that happen. If you would like some more tips on how you can take action and what kind of actions that you can take to move closer to the success you want, then click here and I will see you on the other side.

To your successful actions!

Ken Cloutier

 

 

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

As I am sitting on the floor in my living room, my 3 year old Doberman Pinscher is nuzzled up against me sleeping. I was thinking about when my wife and I first started our own home based business and how excited that we were to be our own bosses!

Then it occurred to me that a large reason why we have been successful in our business is that we did not sweat the small stuff when we got our business started. In other words, we did not wait to try to figure out all of the details before we took action. We were “all in.” This thought process of being “all in” is applicable to all endeavors, not just in business. The thing that I see many people struggle with is that they feel as though they have to get everything just perfect before they take any action toward their goals. They have to get their ducks in a row. Can I give you some advice? When was the last time you saw ducks walk in a row? It doesn’t happen!

If you are looking to become a pastor for instance, don’t sit around waiting for a large church to call you to come in and preach to their congregation. Instead, you could find a youth camp that you could volunteer your time to in order to minister to young adults. You see, you can move closer to your ultimate goals, but it requires action, even if it is small steps you are heading in the right direction.

One of my mentors has always said “hesitation is devastation.” If you hesitate and don’t take action, nothing good can happen. Stop waiting for things to be perfect before you take action towards your goals. It is never the right time to do anything. The time to do something is now! We all have 24 hours in a day; every single one of us. Nobody was blessed with 25 hours in a day. So why is it that some people succeed while others are still waiting to? The people that succeed do not wait for everything to be just perfect, they take action. They are not worried that they are working and going to school and have a family to take care of, they continue to take action regardless of their circumstances.

What category do you fit into? Do you take the “all in” approach or have you been hesitating on taking action because you just “don’t have time?” You will never have time! I have noticed that the older that I get (I’m only 35, don’t rush me!) the more complicated life gets. Stop procrastinating in doing what you know you should be doing to fulfill your dreams- take action!

You can do it! Take small, simple action steps in the direction of your goals and dreams and you will get there; but you have to start!

To Your Success!

Ken Cloutier

 

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The Importance of Having a Mentor

Mentor-ship is a developmental relationship between a person who has experience in a particular subject and someone who is looking to gain more insight and knowledge of that topic. It is a personal relationship between these two people that make it the key to success.
 

Do you have a mentor? Are you wondering what the big deal is about having a mentor or “life-coach” as I have heard it termed?

The benefits of having a mentor are many. But one of the most obvious benefits is the ability to learn what to do and what not to do from somebody that has experience in the field that you are looking to pursue. Having a mentor is like walking through a mine field. The best way to navigate through a mine field is to follow the footsteps. The footsteps will lead you to the other side whereas if the footsteps end, well, you can figure out the rest of the story!

A mentor of mine stated that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” That is the purpose of a mentor; to help guide you through to your goals and help you avoid making mistakes that they have made or learned from. They will help to guide you in decision making, what action steps to take, and give you general insight and points of view that you have not thought of. Mentors can also inspire you by giving positive and encouraging words and believing in you when others don’t.

So how do you find a mentor? The best way that I have seen is to find someone in your field of endeavor who has been successful to some degree and ask them if you can get some time with them (i.e.- take them to lunch or dinner or grab a cup of coffee). That’s right, you just need to ask them if they will mentor you. Most people would be flattered to be asked to be your mentor. But you have to mean it.

It is important that you don’t waste the time of your mentor either. They are providing time and knowledge to you. In exchange, you should make every effort to carry out the advice that they are giving you. If your mentor suggests you do X,Y,Z and you come back to them and did not do any of those things because you just got too busy, you are telling your mentor that you don’t care enough to listen to their advice. They will probably not want to mentor you any longer. Be respectful of their time and don’t take them for granted! It will pay you great dividends for you not to!

I have had the wonderful opportunity to be mentored by some of the most successful, dynamic leaders in this country. They have not only made a lot of money, but they have enriched the lives of thousands of other entrepreneurs from all over the country through their knowledge and wisdom. It is very comforting to know that I don’t have to face any obstacles or challenges alone and the advise that I get is for my benefit as well as theirs. When I win they win; a true win/win situation. Within the same program, I have also had the opportunity to mentor hundreds of other entrepreneurs and help to mentor them towards their goals and dreams of having a home based business of their own and make money.

If you are looking or open to an opportunity and a mentor that will help you to succeed at whatever level that you want to, click here and I will show you how we can work together. 

To your success!!

Ken Cloutier

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