Today’s post comes after a long and fulfilling weekend. I was lucky enough to join 4 friends on a 36 hour fishing trip out of Port Aransas Texas into the Gulf of Mexico. It was absolutely fantastic. Our group of 5 caught 215 pounds of Red Snapper, Vermilion Snapper, and Blackfin Tuna. Not counted in the total weight was the 4 foot Black tip Shark.
Persistence in the face of factors outside your control.
The trip started with some very rough seas. We were going through 10 foot swells and my “land lover” body wasn’t quite ready for that challenge. At the same time though, we didn’t go all the way out there to sit on a boat, so we fished. 2 members of our group got sick at our first stop. We left with our limit of Red Snapper. Later in the day, it was time to start fishing for Tuna. This is why we all came. We’re all here for the opportunity to catch a Tuna. My wife actually told me that if I didn’t catch one, I could never go fishing again. The pressure was on.
About 3 hours into our stop, I still hadn’t gotten a Tuna. I distinctively remember thinking to myself ‘I got about 5 hours left to catch a fish, plenty of time.’ 2 hours later, still no Tuna. I started to think of making changes to my bait, technique, location, and pretty much everything I had control over and some I didn’t. I remember saying ‘the captain needs to move the boat closer.’ Nothing I was doing was working, therefore everything had to change. At the end of the day, I didn’t change anything. I kept jigging and eventually caught my Tuna.
Multiple times, I had to tell myself to just stick with it.
Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. – Napoleon Hill
There wasn’t much perspiration on a windy 60 degree night while 80 miles off the coast of Texas, but patience and persistence paid off. Napoleon Hill was an author in the beginning of the 1900s. He was one of the first American authors to write about personal success and was a great influence on Andrew Carnegie and Franklin D Roosevelt. I don’t know when this quote was said but Hill’s best selling book Think and Grow Rich was published in 1937. In other words, it’s not exactly new. The concepts though are timeless.
Think of how many times you’ve debated quitting on your goals. How many times have you made progress only to see it slow down or stop? That’s perfectly normal, and unfortunately, there is no magic bullet to get through. The only way to beat your plateau or bust through your wall is by applying the Three Ps – Patience, Persistence, and Perspiration.
Anything worth doing takes time. For example, there is an entire industry dedicated to quickly losing weight. If any of those products actually worked, they wouldn’t have customers. We’d all be Ryan Gosling walking around and there’d be no overweight people. Instead, the only people who succeed are those who are willing to put in the perspiration in the gym, persistence in their diet, and patiently wait for their success. It’s the same thing with starting a business, website, or learning a new talent. Being persistent and patient are all about trusting your research. You know the way, and often people give up either when things gets hard or at the first sign of resistance. Combining hard work, or perspiration as Napoleon Hill called it, with persistence and patience are still an unbeatable combination for success.
Here are some examples of common roadblocks experienced by myself or close friends that are worth working through:
Plateau while losing weight- Unexpected expense while trying to budget your way out of debt
- Writers Block while working on a short story
- Not being accepted for a promotion
- Business not making money as quickly as planned, or hoped
- Picking up a new sport
There are all common stopping points because many people lack the discipline to put in the Three Ps.
Thank you again for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email with any comments or questions you may have.
– Tim
Photo Credit: Gemma Bardsley; BK