How To Persevere: 8 Lessons I’ve Learned

How To Persevere: 8 Lessons I’ve Learned

I want this blog to be practical. In other words, I want to provide actionable steps to help you (and me!) persevere until we get what we want. Until our goals are achieved. Until our accomplishments can be deemed a success.

But in order to achieve that, we must know how to persevere. It’s easy enough to talk about it, but can be a challenge to maintain.

Perseverance is the art of hanging on in there when you want to give up. Or in other words, how to be stubborn in the pursuit of your goals!

So what can you actually do that will amount to perseverance?

Below I’ve listed 8 ‘how to persevere’ lessons I’ve learned over the years. They’re simple but often not easy to put into ongoing practice.

But, when it comes to how to persevere, they’ve equipped me with the knowledge that enables me to recognise that if I do these things, I am more likely to keep going even when I don’t feel like it.

1. Have a place/time where your ‘thing’ always happens

Checking back over my blog calendar, I can see that I have only missed putting out a new weekly blog on two occasions since October 2016! One of those was Christmas day and the other was on the 3rd of September 2017, which was when we had taken a spontaneous trip to France and I clearly wasn’t ahead with my writing!

It’s a pretty good record though and something I’m proud of, because looking back on the previous year, my posts had been a lot more sporadic.

Having a set time and place for writing has been one of the key moves in making this happen.

For me, Sundays are synonymous with blog writing. I get up early, usually around 5.15am, do my morning routine (meditation, affirmations etc) and then get to work with the intention of having at least a draft blog post finished before midday.

(This draft was finished before 11am 🙂 )

2. Monitor progress and keep stats

One of the most frustrating things about working towards a goal is that it can be difficult to see progress. This can be the same for losing weight, where there’s often an early win followed by a slow down as it is for blog writing where it seems that the lack of comments indicates that there are few (if any) visitors to your blog.

So find another way to keep relevant stats.

I get weighed in the same jeans/t-shirt/trainers combo every week. Sometimes the scales move, sometimes they don’t and sometimes they go the wrong way 🙁  . But, the belt on my jeans has become increasingly looser over time. Sometimes this is the only positive I have to hold on to, so I hold on to it!

For a long while I assumed that visitors to my blog would leave comments, but this just hasn’t been the case. In fact, comment counts and frequency have reduced.

However, over the last 6 months, page views have quadrupled! This is reassuring, but, to casual observers of my blog, it’s not visible.

Again, it’s reassuring to have this kind of measure, and helps me persevere.

3. Have a plan

Make a to do list every month, week, day that maps out what progress is happening in that timeframe.

One of my biggest challenges is the lure of distractions. From Facebook to reading, domestic chores and socialising, everything is more alluring than doing the thing I should be doing.

But, if I maintain a plan of what I want to achieve within specific timeframes it stops me being aimless and then doing nothing of any consequence.

Even if you fail to get any work done on a particular day, your plan is there to refer back to the next day, plus, having a personal deadline can help you persevere.

4. Really, really want it

I’ve had goals that have come and gone. I thought I wanted the outcome, but in reality, I wasn’t prepared to make the sacrifices or put in the work that would turn those goals into a reality.

This is a really important consideration, and quite possibly one of the reasons why you’ve failed to reach some of your long-term goals in the past.

The trouble is, working towards big goals requires commitment, not just a level of excited interest that eventually wains. It’s a feeling that awakens as soon as you open your eyes in the morning and is still on your mind when you fall asleep at night.

In some ways it can be a burden because you can never get away from thinking about it! But, it’s a good burden to have.

If you don’t feel this level of wanting, your goal may be too small.  Try thinking bigger!

5. Forgive yourself when you mess up or get stuck in a rut

Sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes lethargy sets in. In both cases, they lead to a slow down in your progress, a slow down that feels uncomfortable because it wasn’t planned, unlike a holiday where you’re ‘allowing’ yourself to slow down or down tools.

No, instead, this feels like being caught in a cage. Trapped.

The stubbornness I had as a child has been transmitted into perseverance. I can let go but I don’t give up. I don’t beat myself up about negative things.
Phylicia Rashad

You can get trapped in your negative thought patterns of not being good enough or not being bothered. They feel like they’re becoming self-fulfilling and you can’t move yourself out of that spot.

But, somehow, eventually the fog lifts. Thankfully, you’re able to get back on track. But then the remorse kicks in. Why did you let yourself wallow? Why did you waste so much time? Look at the ground you’ve lost, now you’ve got to do it all again!

But what’s the point of recriminations? They won’t get you anywhere.

Be prepared to let it go. Learn any lessons that present themselves, but let it go and move on. As my diet class leader says “leave it at the door”. And she’s right. Move on.

6. Be prepared to make sacrifices

There will be sacrifices.

To write this blog, I get up early (missing out on a luxurious Sunday morning snooze), shut myself away (while the rest of the family enjoy a relaxing morning). I turn down Sunday invites to socialise.

You aren’t going to find anybody that’s going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.
Lou Holtz

You know the drill. If you’re sticking to a particular eating or exercise regime, something has to give. If you’re studying or learning a new skill, you need time alone to learn and assimilate the new information.

But, whilst there are sacrifices, there are pay offs and the rewards are equal to or mean more than the sacrifice you’ve made. You know this, so be prepared to persevere. Avoid instant gratification at all costs.

7. Know your priorities

I love having lots of goals, which is probably clear from my annual goals posts, but I am also very much aware that some of them will conflict with one another.

This is never more apparent than in the time versus activity arena.

As you can see from my goals, I’m planning on doing a lot of travelling this year (as we have in previous years), this will inevitably impact on the amount of time I have available to work on my blog, fit in any additional learning or spend time with family and friends.

Consequently it’s important to not only prioritise but also schedule well ahead. I keep a wall planner at home where I’ve scheduled all my travel plans. You will know from my January goals update that most of our trips are already either booked up or have a month-to-make-it-happen loosely assigned.

By doing this, I know when I need to be writing and scheduling more content so that I continue to meet my personal targets.

Similarly, I also know when my weight plans might veer off course and what I’ll need to do to correct this course departure.

8. Learn to ignore the chaos

You’re going to have to get used to living with a relative amount of chaos. Whether that’s physical because you can’t keep up with the domestic chores or mental, because your mind will keep reminding you of all the other things you need to be getting on with.

This happens A LOT!

The hardest thing is living with the guilt. As a Mum, there are certain things that fall under my domestic wing, and, unfortunately, I sometimes fail to deliver at the appropriate time.

Yes, of course my children could do some (maybe all) of these things for themselves, but there’s a part of me that wants to continue to fill the nurturing role. When these two worlds collide, it’s guilt overload.

Learn to live with it. Life happens, but it’s important to hold on to the long term plan and keep believing that it’s for the greater good of all.

So there you have my 8 hard-learned lessons on how to persevere.  I’ve learned and applied these over the last few years and have found that I’m recently able to apply them more consistently, which, in turn has let to more consistent results.

I’m sure there are a few more I could add to this post, but wanted to turn it over to you at this point!  What are your favourite ‘how to persevere’ tips?  Please share them in the comments so that this resource can grow and be even more helpful for all you goal achievers out there!