As we continue our series on 'Characteristics of Success' I would like us to explore 'Perseverance'! Once again, lets bring a common definition to this characteristic:

Webster says Perseverance is: Steady persistence in a course of action especially in light of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement. Synonyms; doggedness, steadfastness, tenacity.

When we examine the definition of this quality several keys stand out, which I would like to highlight. First, I want to point out that all of us share the quality of perseverance at one level or another. Here's what I mean: Pursuing a course of action and demonstrating perseverance when there are no problems or obstacles is easy. We all have 'amazing' perseverance when things fall into place and one detail after another turns out well.

Now, when things don't go easy...... when one detail after another doesn't fall into place......when one obstacle after another surfaces and you feel like you're drowning........when you're discouraged to no end.........when you feel like quiting 1000 times........this type of perseverance is a whole other ball of wax. This type or perseverance separates the people who achieve from those who 'quit'.
 
Over the next several posts I would like to explore how we can develop this trait in our day-to-day lives. As we look at some of these methods/ways to develop perseverance; I will also share some personal and professional examples to help bring the point into focus.

As many of you know I live in the Adirondack Mountains of up-state New York. I love the mountains but more than the mountains I love the water. For me, there is something about being on the water or near the water. When I have a bad day, many times I will just go down to my dock and sit there, watch the boats go by and think. If that doesn't help I'll climb on my Triton Bass Boat and motor up the lake to a small cove or inlet.......then I will just sit......be quiet......listen to nature......pray.......and think.

I am also a dog lover......more specifically a Labrador lover. As I write, 'Hunter', one of my Black labs is asleep in front of the heater and 'Moses' the other one is curled up on the couch sleeping. Living on the water, there is nothing more fun than than having 'water' dogs. During the summer my labs are in the water all the time and yes they will retrieve anything you're willing to throw. They will continue swimming out there and bringing back their toy or a stick until you are tired of throwing. I have a twenty foot floating the dock that comes off the main dock and they will run down the floating dock and jump fifteen feet or so in the air and splash into the water after one of their 'floating toys'.....it is a hoot to watch.

Now some of you are now wondering: What do the above paragraphs have to do with perseverance. Let's tie the thoughts together; earlier we talked about how easy it is to persevere when things are easy or go well. We also established it is a whole different story when things are tough and not going well. I want to tie the above thoughts/paragraphs to the first synonym above, 'Doggedness'.

For those of you that are dog lovers, you know the fun and joy of playing with your pets. My labs are amazing in many ways: One way is their 'doggedness' (no pun intended!). Moses weighs over one hundred pounds and has feet the size of a small bear. I learned early on, to NOT play 'tug-of-war' with him and one of his toys/stick. His jaw strength coupled with four legs digging in and pulling back with all his might is impressive. He will NOT quit.....he will hold on for all he's worth. Sometimes when he has a stick and there is snow on the ground I can pull him as he slides on the snow......but he is NOT letting go of the stick or toy......never!

Watching both Hunter and Moses in the water is seeing retrievers do what God intended them to do.......swim effortlessly and bring stuff back to their owner. As I alluded to earlier, you'll be tired of throwing the stick or toy before they will quit. Now after you have thrown it twenty or thirty times they might not go after it with the furor of the first couple throws, but they'll still go after it. In the spring they'll go off the dock and retrieve their toy, swimming back to the dock with big blocks of ice floating by them. The cold water or temperature doesn't stop them from doing what they love to do.

A few years ago I was walking on the lake with my labs during the winter and Hunter bounded across the ice to 'visit' with some local ice fishermen who were out that morning. (Now, when you're ice fishing and you catch a fish you want to keep, many ice fishermen just lay the fish on the ice. They don't need a cooler......they're standing on several feet of ice.) Well Hunter goes bounding across the ice to say 'Hi'! All of a sudden; I see Hunter take off running back toward me, with a couple fishermen running across the ice following him and yelling the whole time. As Hunter gets closer, I realize why the fishermen are yelling and chasing him. He has a huge fish in his mouth that he is bringing to me. Hunter 'retrieved' the fish and brought it to his Dad. After a little coaxing and alot of laughing, I was able to get him to 'release', the frozen fish and return it to the fishermen who were also laughing hysterically.

Why have I shared the above stories: Several reasons......to make you smile..... and hopefully you did......but also to demonstrate, 'Doggedness'! If we want to to exhibit 'Perseverance', one way might just be to mimic my labs. Sometimes, we need to dig-in and pull with all our might.......sometimes we need to go back in the water......again and again......even if we're tired......even if it's cold.

What area do you need to be a little more 'Dogged' today? Why not dig-in and try again.....why not jump out there one more time......why not try again. Even though my Labs are sound a sleep.......if I grabbed their toy and showed it to them......they would be ready to dive in and go for a swim in a second......how about you? Are you ready to try again......to get after it one more time......to break through the obstacles that are in front of you?????.....are YOU?

What do you need to do? What do YOU need to 'dive into' again or tackle......right now......where do you need to persevere?

Why not decide to be 'Dogged' (like Hunter and Moses) and do it!        
                                                                                                  (Moses, Sierra, Mariah and Hunter)

Until next time; as always, thanks for listening/reading and remember to......'Dream Big and Dare to Fail!'

In our last post we introduced the term 'Focus' and we talked about controlling our thoughts and the need to direct the intentions of our lives.

I believe one of the challenges we face daily in maintaining our focus is 'fear'. Fear can be paralyzing for many of us. Now don't get me wrong, a good healthy fear in certain instances may protect/save you or someone else's life. However, I want us to think about how we are bombarded with 'fear' everyday and what it does to us either consciously or sub-consciously.

In today's media driven world, it is easy to understand fear. Let me give you some examples: H1N1, 10.2% unemployment, Iraq, Afganistan, nuclear threats, 'lack' of health-care, soaring costs, national debt soaring, Social Security going bankrupt, Medicare cuts, commercial pilots over-flying their destination, gas prices, heating oil prices, 'climate change' and the list goes on and on and on.......

Now folks, I am all for the 'news' and keeping informed on local, national and international affairs. I am also not condemning the 'News' or people in the news business. I guess what I would like to point out is this: How much of the news we receive everyday is 'negative'. Negative news sells.....it does, let's be honest. If the news casters said: 100% of all airlines took off and landed safely today: No one died from H1N1 today:......etc.....etc......you get the drift. Most of us would turn that off and not call it the news. (Now again, I am not saying we don't need to be informed and know that 'bad' things do happen and need to be reported..... so continue to watch, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, SKY-NEWS, BBC and any other 'news' outlet.)

The point I am trying to make is how much of these messages create some level of 'fear' in the listener/viewer. We are so fear based it is amazing. Next time you watch one of these programs, ask yourself how much of what is reported creates a certain level of fear inside of you.

Let me tie this together; as I alluded to earlier, a 'healthy' dose of fear is important and is how our bodies function, especially in an 'adrenaline' type situations. The challenge with being inundated with 'fear' messages, is that it stifles our creativity, our willingness to experience things, try new things and risk. We are afraid many times to fail.

Over the years I have taken many 'Corporate' groups on 'Teambuilding' exercises. We accomplish this by taking the group into the woods and do 'low ropes challenges'. The events are tremendously fun, inciteful and cause the group to think and work together. We normally conclude the two days in the woods with what we call a 'Trust Fall'. A 'Trust Fall' is simply this: There is a platform built onto the side of a huge white pine tree, about four feet off the ground. One-by-one, participants climb up on the platform and fall straight backwards, being caught by their teammates. Now, this is an interesting exercise because it addresses one of our 'natural' fears, falling. 

When we do this, it is always 'challenge by choice' and anyone can opt out of the exercise. After we instruct everyone how to catch their teammates, we also instruct them on the 'proper' way to fall. Once we have done those aspects, we begin. To help the group, I normally go first to show them 'how' to fall and to also prove it is safe. I am 6'6" tall and weigh 205 pounds; if you can catch me, good chance you can catch each other. In all the years of demonstrating this, I have never even come close to being dropped.

One of the keys to 'falling' properly is to keep your body straight and rigid as you fall. The reason this is important is the 'fallee's' weight is evenly distributed among the 10 people doing the catching, (five on each side of the fallee). The challenge for some people is once they start 'falling', they panic and 'curl-up', thus producing what we lovingly call a 'butt fall'. The challenge with a 'butt fall' is it concentrates your weight in one area and you are reliant at that point on the first two people catching all your weight, as opposed to your weigh being evenly distributed among the ten 'catchers'.

I remember a specific group we had that had a woman who didn't want to try the 'trust' fall. She was too scared and opted out which is fine by us. As she watched us, repeatedly catch one person after another safely, (and most of the people were larger than her) she opted in, wanting to try. We re-instructed her how to fall and up on the platform she went. After a little bit of encouragement she leaned back and fell......only to panic mid-fall, curl-up into the fetal position and she was now propelling through the air as a 'butt fall'. Well, the first couple catchers caught her safely and placed her on the ground. She sheepishly looked up at me and asked: 'I butt fell didn't I?' I said: 'Yes you did, but gave her credit for trying.'

This woman watched us catch the remaining individuals and we were ready to call it a day when she asked: 'Would you mind if I try again? I want to do this with out panicking and butt falling!' We said: 'Absolutely!' Now, her whole team was psyched and cheering her on wildly. We re-positioned the catchers, re-instructed her on the proper way to fall and up she went onto the platform.

Once she was ready we gave the OK and down she came.........as rigid and straight as a board. The whole group was able to gingerly catch her and stand her back up on her feet. After she was back standing-up, the whole group came unglued; applauding, slapping high fives, hooting and hollering. During the celebration I will never forget the look on her face and in her eyes. She was so excited and proud that she 'faced' her fear. When we de-briefed the whole event she again spoke up and shared how important that moment was for her: 'I did something today that I didn't think I would ever, ever do and this gives me the confidence to face and try other things I've wanted to do but was afraid I'd fail.'

I like this analogy of 'FEAR'. Fear is: 'False Evidence Appearing Real'. Now again I'm not trying to dimishish a healthy dose of fear. What I am trying to point out is this; what keeps us from 'focusing' many times is the thought of failure or fear. We can come up with a 100 reasons why it won't work or why we shouldn't try something. As I think back over my lifetime and how many times I panicked about something because of my fear......what is also surprising is how many times what I feared, never materialized. I can't tell you how many times I was overwhelmed by the thought of the fear and being overwhelmed either kept me from trying it or I postponed doing it for a very long time. When I did finally 'do it' and was was able to accomplish what I wanted, I was then left wrestling with the thought of: Why didn't I do or try that sooner!  

If you want to improve your ability to 'focus' and get the important things in your life accomplished you have to be able to overcome your fears. I'll leave you with a couple questions to ponder:

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

What are or have you been thinking about doing but you've come up without a 1000 reasons (or fears) why not to do it?

If you knew you couldn't fail......what would you do or try?

If you try and fail, what's the worst that could happen?

If you don't try will you regret not giving it a shot?

What are you truly afraid of?.....What other's will think?

As I shared in my first post on 'Focus'; Elite Olympic Athletes develop the ability to 'focus and picture' want they want to accomplish. That trait or ability is just the opposite of focusing on your 'worst fear'. Next time you're faced with a challenge at work or at home and you sense 'fear' raising it's head. Take a moment and realize the fear, answer some of the questions above........ then stare that fear down (like the woman above did), picture the positive outcome you want.......... and move forward toward success!

As always, Thanks for listening/reading and remember to.......'Dream Big......and Dare to Fail!'