The Goal Of Persistence

Have you ever wanted to reach your goal but gave up even before you even got started? Whether it's due to pure intimidation or sheer lack of faith, reaching for our goals sounded much easier when we were younger playing doctor or imagining our trip to the moon simply because back then, everything was possible.

Check out the article I found on the web. It's a good reminder to simply put one foot in front of the other... without stopping.

More Faith - The Goal Of Persistence
Author: David Beairsto

When the Rubber Meets the Road

We’re all refined in the fires of life and we all need more faith. What sort of metal we’re made of is proven in the outcome of the trials we face. When our decisions are left until the moment the trial begins we compound their effect.

A mindset driven by desire and fueled by persistence can make categorical decisions about certainties in life.
- We won’t achieve our goals without persistence.
- We won’t endure long on our own.
- Our thoughts determine our actions.
- Our actions reveal our faith.

Setting the First Goal

When our first decision is to run toward, rather than away from, life’s challenges, we allow the creative imagination to rise up courageously. We recognize that all of our goals are set in anticipation of the obstacles in our way.

If something we desire is waiting right in front of us we don’t set a goal to obtain it, we simply take it.

The objects we desire usually require well thought out plans before we can hope to obtain them. Even the trip to the grocery store requires forethought and faith. Sometimes our plan needs to include another step in case the first store is out of what we wanted.

When life is lived in reaction to everything that besets us we develop habits that are defensive in nature. Creative imagination isn’t designed as a protection mechanism but will become so if that’s the extent of its use.

The Community

The company we keep, like the thoughts we think, has a profound affect upon the goals we make. We won’t dream big in a cautious crowd. In timid company, the rogue individual who’s willing to strike out on their own is excluded.

If we want to set goals worthy of our greatest dreams we’ll need people close by who believe in us. The more encouragement we receive, the more faith we have to achieve.

Envy and jealousy are obviously absent in groups that thrive on encouraging one another. We celebrate everything because it keeps us all moving forward... The overall health of any network of like minded people depends upon the weakest member.

Fueling Our Minds

Autosuggestion takes place constantly. Unless we remain vigilant over the information and emotions that affect our subconscious minds, we’ll lose ground to the negative influences around us. Everything we hear and see should be filtered through our conscious thought process.

This is why our goals are written down and recited daily. This isn’t simply a memory technique but an exercise for our subconscious mind. Our active part in autosuggestion is a conscious objective to the success of the overall plan.

An entrepreneur acquires more faith when the thought process sets the emotional tone for every active step they take toward their goal.

An athlete develops greater confidence when their thoughts condition the rush of adrenaline to release at specific intervals throughout the game.

The Outcome

Regardless of what transpires during the game, or in life, the discipline of persistence drives us onward.

It doesn’t take more faith to keep going. Belief becomes stronger because we keep going.

To twist a popular phrase, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough are still going.’

The tenacity of someone who is passionate about what they do is clearly evident. They read like a book.

When the object of faith is clearly defined, the plan of action has purpose. Understanding the mission attracts more support than powerful speeches or pleas. We all want a reason for what we get behind. The more powerful that vision, that dream, that goal, the harder we’ll persevere in our quest.


About the Author
David Beairsto, author and owner of http://NetworkFisher.com truly believes that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. NetworkFisher encourages entrepreneurs to have more faith in what they are doing by applying the discipline of persistence to their business activity. Knowing how to succeed in business online or offline is a matter of becoming a master marketer. Successful businesses are continually defined by their ability to effectively market their product or service. Visit our website at http://DavidBeairsto.com to follow us in our effort to transform ordinary people into successful entrepreneurs, one by one.

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Doing Something With Nothing

It seems I've morphed into the sounding board for friends taking giant leaps as they depart from the 9-to-5 towards the great unknown. The first thing that I end up blurting out is this:

"Can you deal with moments of doing nothing?"


See, going freelance is pretty much like being an entrepreneur. You are your own industry, and you sell your most valuable commodity: time and talent. As with any business, there will be both peak and low seasons to deal with.

I noticed every freelancer has his own groove. Some start off with a bang, while others gain steady momentum at a laid-back pace. Once a project has been completed, depending if there's another job pending, there is that chance of a lag time. I find that the challenge of being freelance is minimizing that duration, or obliterating it completely by packing your schedule without spreading yourself too thin.

Off-hand, there are things that can serve as temporary solutions to the excruciating wait:

1. Explore other areas that are somewhat connected to your field.
Are you a contributing writer? If magazines are booked until the next issue, try doing some side-editing for a friend's small company. Going freelance means being very resourceful. Provided that you are not selling yourself short, know the limits of your own fees and keep in mind that there will be moments when no price is too small, especially since something is definitely better than nothing!

2. Build connections and use your chat time wisely.
If you find yourself stuck with lots of time in your hands, chat friends up online and bounce ideas off each other with potential projects. If you plan on going freelance, keep in mind that establishing yourself in a good network of friends and even former colleagues provide a great source of insight and potential leads. Make full use of your time and try to create something, even in your head, and see how you can make it fly. Nothing is impossible so even the most seemingly unattractive (or outrageous) venture could prove to be potentially lucrative.

3. Turn trash to cash.
That adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure" holds true for a friend who saw a dilapidated boat in its rusting and deplorable state. He bought the boat, had it torn apart and sold as scrap metal for over 20 times more than its original cost. This could also apply to someone who may turn down a project only to benefit someone else. If you are simply at home just whiling your time away and a friend offers to pay you less that your typical hourly rate to merely sit as a receptionist for less than half a day, I say go for it. Should you turn it down, someone else shall scoot over to do the job and make full use of the fees to pay for good meals for the weekend, one month's worth of mobile bills or housing dues.

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All Boxed Up?

There's something symbolic about this.

A good reminder that it's time to get out of the box :-)

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A Laundrywoman And Her Jaguar

For many years and for the most part of her life, Michelle* was a labandera (laundrywoman). She was born to a mother who also washed clothes for a living. Because of extreme poverty, only the eldest was able to finish school in a remote province while Michelle had to quit high school in her first year and help feed the family. Today, she drives her own Jaguar, owns a large home, a battalion of dogs and lives with a large household staff.

In my career, I meet the most amazing characters, people who all want to learn English for the most incredible reasons. Entering the room warily and dressed in the most expensive brands, she somberly told me during our class, "Ngayon na may pera na ako, iba na ang mga tao na kasama ko. Pero lahat sila, nagsasalita ng English at pag may party, wala akong maintindihan at nahihiya ako. Kaya hindi nalang ako lumalabas." (Now that I'm well-off, the people I encounter are different. But all of them speak English and when there's a gathering, I can't understand anything and... I am ashamed. That's why I don't bother going out.) There is evident self-pity as tears well-up in her eyes.

She began washing clothes as young as high school, charging P3/shirt at construction sites. She later on ventured into selling bananacue along Ayala Avenue. Suddenly her eyes sparkled, she straightened up a bit and beamed, "Alam mo, pag-tindera ka at nagbebenta ka sa Ayala, sikat ka! Hinding-hindi ko makakalimutan ang tuwa ko nung na-promote ako at binigyan ako ng bisikleta ng boss ko dahil marami akong benta." (You know, if you're a vendor selling stuff along Ayala, you're big-time! I will never forget the day when my boss promoted me and gave me a bicycle as a result of my sales.)

Michelle's life today is a result of hard work because she believed in a better life. She now runs a garment company while her husband, who was a construction worker, supplies large-scale services to construction sites. She did not marry into wealth. Instead, she and her husband created their wealth based on sheer faith using whatever strengths they had to move up one day at a time.

She studied English because she wanted to somewhat catch up on the classroom time she missed out on in her youth. Also, she wanted to be able to banter well with the people in her new-found circles. Towards our last few sessions, she would come into the room, smiling, and giving me updates in her best English.

I remember the last day we had as I asked her, "Michelle, one last thing. What advice can you give me so I can be as successful as you?"

She laughed, blushed then sighed, and her eyes started to moisten again as she spoke with intensity, "Ma'am, basta gawin mo ang lahat at wag ka lang titigil. Kung ako nga pinanganak na wala, nagawa ko ang lahat nang ito. Ikaw pa, pinanganak na meron. Wala kang dahilan para hindi umasenso." (Ma'am, just do it and don't stop. I grew up with nothing but was able to do all this. You, on the other hand, were born into so much more. You have absolutely no excuse for failure.)

The sheer simplicity of her advice is what also made it rather profound.

This, my dear friends, was the day when my attitude towards success took a sudden turn and life has been so much different ever since.

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The Only Way Out Is Through

My Psychology teacher, Tess Tuason, once mentioned the quote:

"The only way out is through."

I find this applicable for freelancers because I strongly believe that to develop a solid self-employment system requires being employed first :)

Life would be so sweet if we need not trudge through traffic in corporate attire and just have Wii-breaks instead of coffee breaks.

I spent a good year in a multi-national bank that reported to two different regions of varying time zones. Because of this, I learned the value of precision and accuracy at work where there is absolutely no room for error. My boss, MVF, sent me to two of Asia's prestigious business schools to learn stuff from what a bear market is, computing for equities, and how to compute T-bills and other terms that elude me now.

One day, MVF gave me what was to be some good news and...signed me up for a one-year scholarship in Trust law and accounting in line with a promotion to portfolio management. Although I tremendously enjoyed the friendships I formed in the company as well as my trips to the Snoopy-filled HR office where a painting of mine now sits, I knew in my heart being a banker was not for me. It was only fair that I tell my boss that I was pretty sure there was somebody out there who could do the job so much better.

Today, I still carry the value of discipline and reliability when meeting deadlines which I picked up from my friends at the bank and MVF himself. It is the core on which my life as an artist and writer is built and something I believe should be the very foundation of creative freelancers who wish to have an edge.

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