Self Improvement Quotes | Articles | Inspiration

Self Improvement: Persistence is Power

In today’s self improvement article, I wanted to review the power of persistence in personal achievement. A great quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow says, ”The heights by great men reached and kept – Were not attained by sudden flight, – But they, while their companions slept, – Were toiling upward in the night.” What does this mean? Is success an over-night experience? Can we succeed by trying once, not getting a result and giving up? Well, it’s obvious that success needs work, but many of us only try a few times and decide it’s to painful to continue. This is why persistence is so important. To succeed, we must persist.

Practice Persistence

How can we become better at persisting? Well, what is the goal you are trying to achieve? Why are you trying to achieve it? Who will benefit when you achieve that goal? How positively will it impact their lives and yours? Do you know that often times, people are so close to achieving a goal, but give up moments before they may have had a breakthrough that would have propelled them to succeed? Thomas Edison is always the perfect example when studying persistence. He worked relentlessly to create his inventions and succeeded greatly. How successful would he have been if he did not persist? He said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” What a great piece of truth that is. Go a little farther and you may reach your destination. However, if we do not make that last effort, we won’t get there will we? Hopefully we are not waiting for someone to pick us up an get us there? Most people have enough trouble just getting themselves from where they are to where they want to be? Persistence is an intrinsic ethic that needs to be cultivated. There is only one way to practice persistence. When you decide to accomplish something – do not give up. Even if there is a mountain in front of you – don’t give up. You can go under, over or around that mountain. There is a way, but only if we persist. If we let that mountain stop us – well, enough said!

Self Improvement Articles: Leadership 101

Leadership is More Than Just Talk

In today’s self improvement article, I wanted to touch on a very important subject. That is, the old saying “actions speak louder than words”. Ask any effective coach, manager, teacher or parent that has been successful in getting positive results, “how did you do it?” and they will tell you that they lead by example. They would never ask someone to do something that they themselves had not done. They walked their talk and thus gained not only successful results, but an admirer, a friend, respect and finally are called a leader!

To Be a Leader…

I once worked in a production plant and had 20 direct reports. You could ask any of those 20 wonderful, hard working people today what was most important to them and they would probably answer their “self respect”. It wasn’t how much they made, or how they did on their performance review. However, that would not have been the answer 12 years ago. When I first started as their manager I did not try to change much. Although there we said to be problems. I first set out to understand what the problem was. Finally after talking to the team and assessing “happenings”, I hypothesized that there was a lack of appreciation and respect for the team. Prior management took the “if you don’t like it, go work somewhere else” attitude. Fear was leading the way and nobody was happy about it.

So what did I change? Well, when the team worked late, I was there. When someone needed materials, I took time out to get it for them. When someone needed help with a personal concern, I listened and helped them to resolve it. When someone had an emergency, I respected their need for time to attend to it. I treated everyone with the respect we all deserve and I would never ask anyone to do – or else. Although some of our management did not believe in my approach, I gained the respect of the most important people – my team. Productivity and quality increased. Negative chatter decreased. The team was super successful all because they felt that they had their self respect back. They felt appreciated and they put their hearts into their work again.

Final Thoughts

First, to be a leader, you must have a vision that takes everyone into account . Each and every person has value to contribute. Some more, some less, but we all have something to contribute. A good leader puts the right people in the right position to help the whole. A leader will put his strongest player in a position to make the biggest, most significant impact and position his supporting staff to do exactly that – support. Finally, the leader will not sit back and rest. He/She will set goals, recognize individual accomplishments, that in essence are team accomplishments, and finally ensure that when mistakes are made (and there are always mistakes) uses that mistake as a tool for future success, not an opportunity to disrespect anyone. Find me one person who has never made a mistake…no chance! So, if you were to create self improvement in this area, it would be to improve on what your actions are and thus translate them to serve others. In the end, when everyone succeeds, you will know true victory.