Persistence --- What Can a Six year Old Teach Us About persistence?

"What My Six-Year-Old Daughter Taught Me About Persistence"
by Gary Vurnum

I taught Katie, my daughter, how to ride a bicycle this week.

Well, she taught herself really. I just stood there and watched as she went from a complete failure to a resounding success with less than three hours practice.

It got me thinking.

How could this six-year-old, who only last week was panicking as her bike was 'wobbling' on stabilizers, now be a calm, confident, happy, and 'balanced' child on only two wheels?

One word appeared in my head immediately - PERSISTENCE.

She must have tried hundreds of times just to get her second foot on the pedal...but she kept trying.

She kept trying because she wanted to be able to ride like the other children (and also to prove me wrong!). She kept trying because she knew that if she tried...and tried again...she KNEW that she would succeed.

How many of us adults can say that about the challenges we face?

How many times have you started something that really excited you...only to give up at the first sign of pressure or failure? Think of what you could have achieved if only you had kept going...even when the odds were against you.

After spending so much time in hospital with my son fighting to breathe and to stay alive...I have (slowly) realized that persistence is the difference between success and failure. Life or death.

The hardest part of persistence is finding enough reasons to keep pushing yourself...even when the odds are stacked against you.

So maybe next time you get excited about something...and begin to have second thoughts, ask yourself these questions:

- Which means more to me - succeeding or giving up?

- What got me excited at the start - and why won't it keep me going now?

- Am I focusing on the 'what-ifs' too much? -

"What if they say no?"

"What if I can't do it?"

- Do I really want to achieve this more than I want to stay where I am?

- If someone offered me a million dollars to achieve it would I do it? If the answer is yes - what's stopping me from doing it?

I never said that success would be easy. If it were there wouldn't be any poor people!

Take it from me. Whichever way you define success - it's well worth the effort.

The persistence pays off in the end.

To our Success !

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Gary Vurnum has quit his full-time job to devote himself to his family and his self-development. His life turned around after the birth of his severely disabled son, and he now wants to share with others the tools he used to remain positive during the worst time of his life. His life-changing ebook “The Science of Success” is available from his Science of Success web site by Clicking Here

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