Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at Pennsylvania University, USA has spent years of researching to find what has made many successful people go on their chosen path. In her recent published book “GRIT – The Power Of Passion And Perseverance”, there is a message: “Talent is not enough. You need to have one more factor, called GRIT – that is the perseverance that helps you face and overcome all challenges and difficulties”.
So how can we identify or train our perseverance?
Here are the four factors that any perseverant and successful people possess:
1.They are interested: Success requires you are always interested in things you have chosen and pursued. That is passion. Passion starts with an urge within your heart. It pushes you forward to be curious, learn, and most importantly is that you feel happy when doing these things. “If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life”, you live with your passion and you never feel tired or difficult.
Of course, in our daily work, sometimes we have to do the work that we might not be interested in, for example, administration or reporting work,… However, perseverant persons will understand and know what they are not interested in and will see the whole work that they are doing, and they are never discouraged by small things.
2.They practice: Lazy persons prefer to be enjoyable and want to be cared for and offered good conditions, they are difficult to achieve success. Because success requires discipline and efforts to get what you want. You need to identify and improve your own weaknesses, work non-stop, and persevere to do it every day, every month, or every year. As a result, you will become better and achieve the goals you have set.
3.They have purpose: What will make a person be disciplined, overcome challenges to train himself? That is the meaning, the great purpose behind what that person is trying to accomplish.
The results of the work we are doing today will bring a positive and human impact on everyone around us, our communities, our society, and our country in the future. If that purpose is only for making money and being enjoyable, if the purpose only focuses on personal benefit, it will not motivate us enough to push us forward.
Some people realize their life purpose very early, but others realize it quite late. Only when you realize the meaning of what you are doing, you really work and overcome all challenges to achieve success. Even if life pushes you down many times, you can still stand up, smile, and moving forward.
4.They have hope: Keeping your dreams in your heart will determine your success or failure. Hope is an energy throughout the journey to conquer your goal. Hope helps you to stand up even when you are in the worst situation, even when nobody seems to be around.