Perseverance Means Never Giving Up

Perseverance Means Never Giving Up

“It is amazing to me how many people just naturally take to following

other people. It is as if it is easier to follow along than to travel their own

road. This morning this “following the follower” came to mind when I

saw a flock of birds.

Nature has a way of preserving animals, birds, and other forms of

life. We see elephants, seals, penguins, birds, and the ape family. There

is the leader who makes choices as to where to seek water, food, and

shelter. The leader also moves the flock or herd to safer territory or

different climates.

This morning I studied a large flock of blackbirds flying in precision

formation as they swooped from one lawn to another. They were

eating either some of the grass seed or some bugs on the ground. But

what was amazing was that, as soon as the leader decided to fly away

from a particular lawn, the entire flock followed rapidly, wherever the

leader flew.

I find that many people are like that. Maybe it is bred into us from

nature or instinct alone, but many of us would like to merely follow

rather than lead the way.

Of course, there are those special people who are called “born

leaders.” What is a born leader anyway? Inventors could be considered

born leaders because they travel down roads that were never traveled

before. Inventors work on the nearly impossible. They are fearless

leaders. Inventors don’t get thrown by all the negative criticism they

receive. The inventor merely trudges along after each failure, knowing in

their hearts that success will surely present itself in a future experiment.

So, why can’t most of us lead rather than follow? I guess it is too easy

just to take the road well-traveled rather than cut your own way through

the forest and blaze a new trail. We were each created to be born leaders,

but somewhere along the way we became weak, and then naturally fell

in line behind the braver, tougher, natural leader.

Today, this special day, let us use our imagination. Let us make

believe that we are an inventor such as Thomas Edison. And during

this experiment let us each do something new, challenging, and almost

impossible. Let us become the inventor of our own life. Maybe we can

emulate that persevering mindset of the great inventor for an entire

week! You will be shocked at how you attack work and life like the

inventor you have imagined yourself to be.

In the wild, the strongest ape is the leader. The males routinely fight

among themselves to determine the leader. The leader in most species is

tested regularly, until one day he becomes too weak to lead.

I believe that we were born to be great leaders, each one of us. But

perhaps our upbringing, nurturing, relationships as youngsters, the

crowd we hung out with in school, our slowly formed personalities, all

contributed to who we evolved into as adults. Some of us take chances

without fear of failing because our confidence level is high, while others

fear confrontation, fear risks, and are more comfortable taking a sure

route that we know we can conquer. Thus, we follow the follower.

Inventors have the key to achieving goals. Successful authors,

business owners, and athletes all have the key. They have figured out how

to program their minds with this special, never-ending, burning desire

to succeed in their dream goal. They may not even be aware of what it

is that they have done within themselves to achieve the outcomes they

so desperately desired. But they have actually etched deeply into their

subconscious minds the burning desire to achieve that special goal.

It may be a youngster who has a huge dream of becoming a Major

League Baseball player. He dreams of playing in the Major Leagues,

like his baseball idols such as Derek Jeter. He sees Derek Jeter for years

playing baseball as one of the best who ever played the game, and the

youngster slowly develops the intense desire to emulate Jeter. The desire

gets etched deeply into the youngster’s subconscious mind, and just as

he unconsciously blinks his eyes and breathes the air he needs to survive,

the intense desire to succeed keeps radiating like a flashing sign, all on

its own, pushing the youngster to the ultimate dream of success.

We each have had smaller goals that were intensely driven desires

upon which we acted until they were fulfilled. Let’s look at such a goal.

Perhaps in our youth we watched with great enjoyment the television

program ER. As we watched show after show, we slowly developed a

consuming goal to become a great doctor like the ones we so admired on

the show. We became obsessed with becoming that doctor, or that nurse.

Or maybe we were influenced by another show to become a great lawyer.

Because of the intense desire now deeply etched into our subconscious

mind, we are motivated to seek higher education and a degree in order

to fulfill this all-consuming dream. Will we be millionaires, insanely

rich? Perhaps.

In Og Mandino’s fabulous self-help book The Greatest

Salesman in the World, he talks about changing the way we think by

feeding certain statements into our minds. He talks about controlling

emotions when he says:”

“I will be master of my emotions. If I feel depressed, I will sing. If I feel

sad, I will laugh. If I feel ill, I will double my labor. If I feel fear, I will

plunge ahead. If I feel inferior, I will wear new garments. If I feel uncertain,

I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty, I will think of wealth to come. If I

feel incompetent, I will remember past success. If I feel insignificant, I will

remember my goals. Today I will be the master of my emotions.”

C-2012 John Paul Carinci from the book An All-Consuming Desire To Succeed