Persistence

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

People never ever fail, they just stop trying. As long as you go out there day, after day, after day, after day, you are constantly giving yourself the opportunity to be successful, to be great, to be the best. The second you stop, you have given up any chance you had to be great.

Yes, there will be roadblocks, there are always going to be roadblocks, but the choice is up to you. You can either sit around, and let someone else clear those roadblocks for you, or you can go over, around or through them, because no matter what you do, there will always be roadblocks.

Life is not a sprint, life is a marathon. That’s the beauty of life. Because in order to be successful in a sprint, you to have win it. But, in order to be successful in a marathon, all you have to do is finish.

Let me ask you this question. If you know anyone who runs marathons, do you ever ask them if they won? Come on, no one ever wins those things. It’s always some little guy from Ethiopia that wins those things. But aren’t you always impressed when they tell you they finished? Sure you are, because anyone can finish a sprint. Anyone has what it takes to last 100 hundreds. But not everyone has what it takes to hang in there for 26 MILES. And the reason that all you have to do is finish in order to be successful is that most of the competition will drop out before the race ever ends. Most of the competition doesn’t have what it takes last 26 miles. Most of your competition doesn’t have the commitment to go out there day, after day, after day, after day, because they don’t understand that success is not just a one time thing.

Those of you who have ever been successful know: It is a lot easier to get to be successful than it is to stay successful. Most people will relax after their first taste of success, because they don’t understand that all the time, energy, effort and commitment that it takes to GET to be the best, are the same things you have to do every day just to stay the best.

Over the course of the marathon of life, you have to do those same things every day.