AUTHORED BY: PROMISE EDEM NUKUNU
GEAR 2
PERSISTENCE
YOU CAN'T STOP HERE, FINISH YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Persistence is an essential factor in life. It is a factor that transmutes DESIRE into its monetary equivalent. The basis of persistence is the power of will and clear mind set. Philippians 3:12-18.
If you are persistent, it means you press on towards your goal- literally speaking. But for you to be persistent in life you need God’s kind of wisdom and God being so good, this wisdom is in CHRIST JESUS.
This wisdom is called Sophia-Greek, which means an insight into reality, all the collective understanding of things. And it also means going beyond what can be explained humanly.
Now, before you will like to do something, either something you thought of in mind and want to bring it to reality or something already exist and you want to modify or give it a new package in order to have a global relevance. Thus, re-invention, by all means in one way or another you may have little knowledge or information about it before planning.
That is, as a matter of fact, as about that knowledge, you have DENOSCO- knowledge, thus a revelation of the word that comes to you. As you receive DENOSCO, now if you are going to grow fully in your decision, then you must foresee into wisdom called EPIGNOSIS – which is the full absolute knowledge about the plan at hand (1 Cor. 13:9, Eph. 2:8-NLT).
Now, will-power, can do spirit and desire, when properly combined makes an irresistible pair. Men who accumulate great fortune are generally known as cold-blooded and sometimes ruthless. Often, they are misunderstood. What they have is a will power which they mix with persistence and place back of their desire to endure the attainment of their objectives.
Henry Ford has been generally misunderstood to be ruthless and cold-blooded- temporary defeat, as Napoleon write in his book. This misconception grew out of Ford’s habit of following through in all of his plans with persistence.
The majority of people are ready to grow their aims and purpose over board, and give up at the first sign of opposition until they attain their goal. These few are the Fords, Carnegies, Rockefellers, Edison’s, John F. Kennedy, etc.
There may be no heroic connotations to the word PERSISTENCE, but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel. The building of a fortune generally involves the application of the entire factors of this philosophy.
These principle must be understood, that, with all issues of life, think positively and add to it PERSISTENCE. Poverty is attracted to the one whose mind is favorable to it, as money is attracted to him whose mind has been deliberately prepared to attract it. Poverty consciousness will involuntarily seize the mind which is not occupied with the money consciousness.
PERSISTENCE BE GUTS SUCCESS
If you can select your “MASTER MIND” group with care- in other words, if you set your thoughts or future career with care, you will have at least one person who will aid you in the development of PERSISTENCE. Some men who have accumulated great fortune did so because of NECESSITY. They developed the habit of PERSISTENCE because they were so closely driven by circumstances that they had to become PERSISTENT.
To be successful in life is not based on your negative thoughts and excuses. If you give excuses you always make room for failure and mediocrity to dominate in your career and attitude. With a good attitude and a conscious effort of the mind towards your future would contribute to your success.
Good attitude is what great men used to dominate and conquer the world:
A – Agree
T – To
T – Think
I – Intelligently
T – To
U – Unearth
D – Determine
E - Events
ATTITUDE is very important in you, because it constitutes a greater part of your life and if mixed with PERSISTENCE you will have a clear vision and produce positive results about what you DESIRE as talked about in the previous chapter.
Advantage of clear vision as a result of persistence
Ø Uniqueness and distinction
Ø Focus and directional
Ø Effective decision making
Ø Satisfaction and fulfillment
Ø Assessment of performance
Ø Allocation of resources (BUDGET)
Ø Effective time management
Separating yourself in order to be PERSISTENT and achieve greatness.
Proverbs 18:1 (KJ) and I quote; “Through DESIRE a man having SEPARATED himself, SEEKETH and INTERMIDDLETH with all wisdom”.
To become great and successful in life, you need to separate yourself from the masses. Do away with those you think are looking for your downfall.
There are some friends and relatives in your life, always, they discourage and push you into bad practices and indulgence in one way or the other.
Even before Joseph in the Bible could occupy the prime ministerial position in Egypt, he separated himself from Mrs. Portiphar. He resisted her offer to have sex with her.
Separate yourself from all forces driving you backwards. Be it the;
Ø Force of bad company
Ø Force of unpersistence
Ø Force of temporary defeat
Ø Force of failure
Ø Force of impossibility – which is a very great factor depressing the youth and the world as a whole. And above all
Ø Force of SUPERSTITION and NEGATIVE THOUGHT.
Success in life, pre-determine, to be sure of greatness in your life, if only you focus on JESUS, SURETY and PERSISTENCE.
Now, let’s turn to PERSISTENCE stories. The secret is told in the struggle of Fannie Hurst, whose PERSISTENCE conquered the Great White way. She came to New York in 1915, to convert writing to riches. The conversion did not come quickly, but it came.
For four years, Miss Hurst learned about the “sidewalks of New York”. From first hand experience she spent her days laboring and toiling. Hoping when hope grew dim, she did not say “Alright Broadway, you win!” She said, “very well, Broadway, you may whip some, but not me”. “I’m going to force you to give up. – That is PERSISTENCE IN ACTION.
One publisher in America (The Saturday Evening Post) sent her thirty-six rejection slips before she “broke the ice and got a story across”. The average writer like the “average” in other walks of life would have given up the job when the first rejection slip came.
She pounded the pavements for four years to the tune of the publisher’s “no”, because she was determined to win.
There came the ‘pay off’. The spell had been broken, the unseen guide had tested Fannie Hurst and she could take it. From that time all publishers made a beaten path to her door. Money came so fast she hardly had time to count it. Then the picture men discovered her and money came not in small, in change, but in floods. The moving picture rights to her latest novel ‘Greatlaughter’ brought $100,000, said to be the highest price ever paid for a story before publication. Her royalties from the sale of books probably will run much more.
Briefly, you have a description of what PERSISTENCE is capable of achieving. Fannie Hurst is no exception Henry Ford was PERSISTENT to bring out his car with which he gained, a global relevance and he is also not an exception.
When every man and woman accumulates great riches, you may be sure they first acquired PERSISTENCE. Broadway will give any beggar a cup of coffee and a sandwich, but it demands PERSISTENCE of those who go after the big stakes.
Kate Smith (the late) will say ‘AMEN’ when she reads this. For years she sang, without money and without price, before any microphone she could reach Broadway of America said to her ‘come and get it, if you can take it’ she did take it until one happy day Broadway got tired and said, ‘Aw, what’s the use? You don’t know when you’re whipped, so name your price and go to work in earnest. Miss Smith named her price!
Dei-Tumi was an intense, focused man through PERSISTENCE and DESIRE; he is now the founding President and CEO of future leaders group and an international youth Consultant and a Motivational Speaker. He is making an impact on the youth of Ghana and the world as a whole. His beginning was poor, but through PERSISTENCE he made it.
Archbishop Duncan Williams, Prophet Diallo and Mensah Otabil are other men of DESIRE and PERSISTENCE. They pressed towards the goal to walk with God and finally, they are now internationally recognized men of God.
They started poorly but with PERSISTENCE. They rose and made it to the top. They eliminated the forces mentioned earlier on and focused on only one thing, and finally they got there.
Thomas Alva Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”.
USE EVERY MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE THROUGH PERSISTENCE AND NOT GIVING UP.
In planning for the future or in preparing towards greatness, we must see that time is served in moments. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean, the sages have said.
It is possible to see a mighty ocean and be overwhelmed by its vastness, forgetting that it is made up of many droplets of water. These come together to give the ocean its vastness.
SUB DIVIDE INTO MOMENTS
So it is with the future. We can subdivide it into moments. Every moment is pregnant with possibilities. How many people spend their time waiting for the big break, sitting in limbo and waiting for the tide to flow? And all the time precious moments pass them by. They lose sight of reality and chase a MIRAGE.
Moment by moment we inch towards our destiny imperceptible. We must recognize every moment and maximize it. American gospel entrepreneur and motivational speaker kingpin, T D Jakes, has addressed it in his book, ‘Maximize the moment’. How do we do this and how?
Open the eyes of your understanding! Live life moment by moment and do the maximum you can in every moment.
It may not seem like much but if you add it all up; with persistence you will have a big hit, writing a big story and landing a scoop.
Life comes in the moments. Maximize your moments and you would be king of the hill, emperor of all you survey. Don’t underestimate yourself by not exerting yourself in the moments.
USE EVERY SINGLE MINUTE IN YOUR LIFE
The moments merge into minutes and time moves on, so use every second and minute. A minute is a neutral component of time. The use you put it to will show how far you go from rags to riches, how much your life will assume significance.
Isaac Newton made use of every minute and discovered the laws of gravity. Archbishop Duncan Williams, Prophet Diallo, Pastor Chris, etc, all used every minute of their lives and now, they are of global relevance and are controlling the world.
Isaac Newton built on his observations minute by minute, seconds by seconds and made the world a better place. What was it that made the apple fall straight to the ground? Why didn’t human beings float about and we all walked on a flat surface, even though the earth was round?
SLOG ON
Minute by minute he plodded on, research until he gained the understanding of the laws of gravity and passed it on to the world. Don’t consider some minutes insignificant or not worthwhile. Every minute counts in writing a ticket for your future.
It depends and based on the way you treat the minute (time) you have with persistence and desire. Use every minute well and it will profit you. Charles Darwin used every minute he had to bring out the beginning of life, shape and order out of the masses of scientist in evolution. In the process he etched his name in history and record.
SEIZE THE TIME
Jamaica, the Island nation in the Caribbean has produced its fair share of reggae musicians. One of them who popularized reggae worldwide and preceded Bob Marley was Jimmy Cliff. He had a scintillating song called ‘Let’s seize the time’. That’s just what we should do. We should enjoy ourselves as we plan for the future and prepare towards greatness and success in life.
“Seize the time before it breezes by for everyone on the surface of the earth. For all dwellers the planet earth time is available.” Eccl. 3:1.
It is one resource that is freely available for everyone. But one must reach out and grab it with both hands. That is what it means to seize it. Let it stop for you so you can see what you can do with it.
Seize the time also means rise up to the occasion. Be a history maker in your own small way. Step up to the plate; Give a good account of yourself.
Use the moment to convert defeat to success. For one to become great is when moments of life and thought are mixed with definiteness of purpose, PERSISTENCE and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation in riches or wealth.
The reason why most of us, especially the youth today are not progressing is our inability to convert the act of defeat as stepping stones to opportunity. Watch out.
Nature can give you affliction but nature cannot induce you to accept the affliction. If you are sick, that is nature, but nature cannot make you sick forever. Convert misfortune into fortune. Give no excuses and explanation and complain but analyze your problem and come out with an answer (or result) so that it would become the solution to other people’s problems.
Driving in neutral and or Slumber are not part of the puzzle. Be active, sit up and pull up your boot straps. Reverse the decline by seizing the time.
If your stomach is empty, ask your hands. Ask your hands because you kept them folded, instead of reaching out and seizing the time.
By seizing the time men and women have caused the world, a few of them are; Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, Neil Armstrong, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Mashood Abiola, the Nigerian business magnate, Aristotle Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Carlos Slim, Sean Connery, Larry King, Fela Anikulapo Kuti – who popularized the Afro Beat in the music world, Thomas Alva Eddison, Michael Faraday and others. This is just a small mishmash of achievers who do not give up. Even their going was tough they got what they wanted.
TIME AND TIDE
Time and tide wait for no man. Kids are taught this in the early stages of life. Yet they grow up forgetting this, becoming specialist in time wasting. They graduate in procrastination.
They always think there is more time ahead to cut that essential deal, forgetting that every minute wasted is an opportunity lost and every opportunity lost is a life diminished.
Time and tide march unrelentlessly on. The tides of the sea never cease going back and forth. They are unaffected by whether people are at the beach or not.
Time does not wait for you to catch it before it moves on. It moves on regardless, unbothered by whether you put it to good use or not. Instead of being petrified in inaction and carelessness and becoming a MUSEUM PIECE, a relic of the past.
Life comes in the moments. Maximize the moment and you would be king of the hill, the monarch of all you survey. Don’t under value yourself by not exerting yourself in the moments. If there was no tomorrow which stretches into eternity, what a rat race this world would be.
A here and now mentality with the future and eternity not part of the equation of persistence would see a descent into bestiality, a free fall into untrammeled monstrosity as man drown in a sea of sharks.
Tomorrow waits for those with vision and persistence. My dear, let us all deflate the bubble that equates spirituality with poverty. Poverty spawns squalor, filth and disease. It imprisons whole communities with chains of ignorance, in the long run poverty tends to be expensive!
Let us not forget that failure and success are both the offspring of thought, therefore think positively.
Kate Smith once again mentioned in this book that she was a great singer, and here is an encouraging statement which carries with it a suggestion of great significance.
Thousands of singers who excel Kate Smith are walking up and down Broadway of America looking for ‘break without success. Countless others have come and gone.
Many of them sang well and good enough, but they failed to make the grade because they lacked the courage to keep on. Until Broadway of America became tired of turning them away.
PERSISTENCE is a state of mind therefore it can be cultivated. Like all states of mind, PERSISTENCE is based upon definite cause among these:
· DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE: knowing what one wants is first and may be the most important step towards the development of persistence.
· DESIRE: it is comparatively easy to acquire and to maintain PERSISTENCE in pursuing the object of intense desire.
· SELF-RELIANCE: be dependent on yourself and move forward. If you turn to your right or left and there is nobody to hold your hand, keep on going because there is a price.
· ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE: knowing that one’s plans are sound, based on experience or observation encourages persistence. ‘Guessing’ instead of ‘knowing’ destroys persistence.
· CO-OPERATION: Sympathy, understanding and harmonious co-operation with others tend to develop persistence.
PERSISTENCE takes inventory of yourself and analyzes and determines whether you have any of the above qualities mentioned, if not, you are lacking in these essential qualities.
Measure yourself courageously, point by point and see how many of the four factors of persistence you lack. The analysis may lead you to discoveries that will give you a new grip on yourself.
THE SYMPTOMS OF LACK OF PERSISTENCE
Here you will find the real enemies which stand between you and noteworthy achievement. You will find out only the ‘symptoms’ indicating weakness. If you really wish to know who you are and what you are capable of doing, then these are the weaknesses which must be mastered by all who want to accumulate riches.
1. Failure to recognize and to clearly define exactly what one wants.
2. Procrastination with or without causes. (Usually backed up with a formidable array of alibi and excuses).
3. Lack of interest in acquiring specialized knowledge.
4. Indecision, the habit of ‘passing the buck’ on all occasions, instead of facing issues squarely. (Also backed by alibis).
5. Self-satisfaction; there is but little affliction and not hope for those who suffer from it.
6. Indifference, usually reflected in one’s readiness to compromise on all occasions, rather than meet opposition and fight.
7. The habit of relying upon alibis instead of creating definite plans for solutions to problems.
8. The habit of blaming others for one’s mistake and accepting unfavourable circumstances as being unavoidable.
9. Willingness, even eagerness to quit at the first sign of defeat (based upon one or more of the six basic fears.)
10. Lack of organized plans, placed in writing where they may be analyzed.
11. Wishing instead of willing.
12. Searching for all short cuts to riches, trying to GET without GIVING a fair equivalent, usually reflected in the habit of gambling, endeavoring to drive ‘sharp’ bargains.
13. The habit of neglecting to move on ideas or to grasp opportunity when it is presents itself.
14. FEAR OF CRITICISM, failure to create plans and to put them into action, because of what others will think, do or say. This enemy is placed as the last point because it generally exists in one’s subconscious mind, where its presence is not recognizes in the world of life.
HOW TO DEVELOP PERSISTENCE
These steps will help you to develop persistence. It is not needed for great amount of intelligence, no particular amount of education but a small time or effort. The steps are:
1. A definite purpose backed by burning desire for its attainments.
2. Definite plan, expressed in continuous action.
3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influence; including negative ideas of relatives, friends and acquaintances.
4. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through both plan and purpose.
*And with all the four steps PRAY. These steps, lead to mastery of Fear, Discouragement, Indifference.
There is a splendid reward for all who learn to take these steps. It is the privilege to make one’s life yield whatever price is asked. I read and got the story, and sharing it with you, that Mrs. Wallis Simpson’s great love for a man was not accidental nor the result of favorable ‘break’ alone.
There was a burning desire and careful and thoroughly searching, at every step of the way. His first duty was to love what is the greatest thing on earth? God (the master) called it LOVE - not made rules, bitterness, criticism, slander or political ‘marriages’ but love. She knew what she wanted, not after she met the Prince of Wales, but long before that , twice when she had the courage to continue her search to thine own self be true and it must follow as the light the day thou coust not them be false to any man.
Her rise from anonymity was of the slow progressive, PERSISTENT order, but it was SURE! She prevailed over unbelievably long odds and temporary defeats and no matter who you are or what you may think of Wallis Simpson or the king who gave up his crown for her LOVE. She is an astounding example of PERSISTENCE, an instructor on the rules of self determination from whom the entire world might profitably take lessons.
When you think of Wallis, think of one who knew what she wanted and shook the greatest empire on earth to get it.
WOMEN who complain that this is man’s world, does not study carefully the life this unusual woman, who at age which most women consider ‘old’ captured, the love of the most desirable bachelor in the entire world.
Wallis Simpson, the world is proud of you.
Be part of the PERSISTENCE race perhaps you may be among the millions who had made it. If you decide to go with PERSISTENCE, then count yourself as a winner.
SUCCESS REQUIRES NO EXPLANATIONS AND FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS. Napoleon Hill
Through persistence, Helen Keller, despite her blindness, graduated from Radeliffe College in 1904, a tough assignment even for a normal person. She finished with excellent reading knowledge of Greek, Latin, German and French- all in Braille of course. Some years later, Woodrow Wilson asked her why she had chosen Radeiffe when she could have selected an easier college. ‘Because they didn’t want me at Radeliffe’, she answered.
‘And being stubborn, I chose to over ride their objection’. Helen Keller had persistence with determination.
SUCCESS IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION. PERSISTENCE IS TENACITY OF PURPOSE NOT THE PRESENCE OF IDEA.
As Calvin Coolidge said, “nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not- nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Geniuses will not, rewarded Genius is a proverb. Education will not- the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent”.
Truly, nothing can occupy the place of persistence. If you don’t persist you do not attain what you wish to have in life. Be part of the branch of persistence and you will never be cut down. The storm may come, the tide may rise so higher, but you will not be brushed away because you cling onto persistence. “If persistence is omnipotent, then the fate of many successful men lies in the hand of persistence”.
“Persistence is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of ear”. -Edem Promise
Success is never final and failure is never fatal; its courage that counts”.
Persistence is the ability to persuade your ideas to materialize and seed to germinate irrespective of the surrounding conditions”. – Edem Promise
KEEP ON MOVING!!!!!!!
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