Connecting Persistence With Goals

Persistence – As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day and the time we fully bloom. It will happen in its own time. –Dennis Waitley--

Goals – What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. – Henry David Thoreau –

For the past couple of years with the blog I have been writing I have had a long term goal of turning the blog into a book on Living More Than OK. I am a big believer in the importance of having short term and long term goals to accomplish more in life. The accomplishments vary from person to person depending on their dreams. Of course just having a goal written down in a journal or on a poster does not make it come to pass. There is another key ingredient needed to make the goals come to life or blossom.

Persistence is that other ingredient. According to Merriam Webster persistence is “the quality that allows someone to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult or opposed by other people.” Trying to accomplish a goal in life is difficult and there often numerous obstacles trying to stop us. The obstacles can be people or things. Persistence is that internal drive that keeps us plodding towards the finish line of our goals. This internal driver helps us to not give up when the mountain feels too high to climb.

My long term goal of the book had come down recently to a short term goal. I couple of quarters of my PhD in General Psychology ago I thought I could have it done but life got in the way. As I neared the end of my Summer quarter I made a short term goal to have my final editing done of the book project during the 3 week break before my Fall classes. Pesky obstacles still cropped up but this time I finished my final edit before the Fall quarter classes began. Now I am at the point of contacting a self-publishing company to get the final product finished.

Thinking of the two words Goals and Persistence we can learn from the two quotes listed above. The Thoreau statement on goals challenges me as I have always focused on achieving through goals. In his statement Thoreau makes me think of character and values that are enhanced through accomplished through goals. For example in the goal of my book for focus should be what I have learned through the process instead of gain from the profit of the book. Writing especially is a risk you don’t know with self-publishing if you will recoup the costs expended. The important issue should be getting thoughts and ideas out that may help someone in their search for truth or personal self-development improve in their life journey.

In the Dennis Waitley quote on persistence the key word for me is grow. Persistence helps us to keep up with the hard work even during difficulty to keep spiraling up into higher levels of personal growth. If we stop growing we stagnate then whither and shrivel up instead of blossoming. God in his timing causes us to blossom in the goals He has placed in our minds. Think of a flower bud such as a rose. A person can’t force the bud to open into a flower without tearing it up or deforming it. Our goals need hard work and the patience of persistence to allow them to come to fruition.

Reflection:
What goals are you working on in your life? How do you see your personal persistence driving you internally to finish your goals? In your past have there been times of difficulties that with persistence you overcame?