I wanted very much to write something “brilliant” about Persistence. Something that would encourage and inspire people to take action, to stay with it, to accept the failures that we get and keep their chin up and be grateful for the experience – NO MATTER WHAT! And the more I studied, and read, and thought about it, the more I realize that I had to just post EXACTLY what Napoleon Hill wrote “72 years ago” and it’s this:

“There are four simple steps which lead to the habit of PERSISTENCE. They call for no great amount of intelligence, no particular amount of education, and but little time or effort. The necessary steps are:

1) A DEFINITE PURPOSE backed by a "BURNING" DEFINITE DESIRE for its fulfillment.

2) A DEFINITE PLAN, expressed in CONTINUOUS ACTION.

3) A MIND CLOSED TIGHTLY AGAINST ALL NEGATIVE AND DISCOURAGING INFLUENCES, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances.

4) A FRIENDLY ALLIANCE with ONE OR MORE PERSONS WHO WILL ENCOURAGE ONE TO FOLLOW THROUGH WITH BOTH PLAN AND PURPOSE.”

From the Book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill – in the Chapter of PERSISTENCE.

This is one of Steve’s favorite chapters in the book.

Notice that the #1 step is not about doing more, working harder, it’s not about even doing “anything at all.” He says that the very first step is to have a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and then he says BACKED BY A “BURNING” DESIRE. If you do not have a definite purpose, something you are working toward, you are more than likely filling your days with “stuff” busy, busy, busy, working all kinds of hours, going home tired and saying you worked hard all day. Now, I’m not saying you are not working on important things – I’m sure you are. Are you farther ahead then you were last year, 3, 5 10 years ago? If not, what’s going to change? Working harder is not going to do it. Has it by now?

I am challenging you to think about WHAT DO YOU WANT? What do you REALLY WANT? When you decide what you want, and you FALL IN LOVE with that idea, then it has to become a “burning desire.” It has to become an OBSESSION.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines obsession as this: “a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; a compelling motivation.”

Obsession is one of those words that it’s used, more often than not, to describe something negative. Like “he’s obsessed with, she has an obsession about . . .” you can fill in the blank. The dictionary even says it’s a “disturbing” preoccupation. THINK about it – how can deciding on a goal you want be a DISTURBING thought. Make up YOUR OWN MIND (you have a choice to do this). I choose to focus on this definition “a compelling motivation.” YEAH!!!

When you are in love with an idea, you need to be OBSESSED with it. Your goal, idea, purpose is what will MOTIVATE you to take ACTION even when your family, friends, co-workers think you are crazy or you are not being reasonable. (Oh, that’s another word we’ll talk about later “reasonable.”)

Of course, your goal can’t be something that will hurt anyone; you want to also keep balance in your life (or at least attempt to). Falling in love with your goal, does NOT MEAN you have to spend all your waking hours on it. Napoleon Hill also wrote, in the chapter of IMAGINATION – “If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty alone will bring you riches, perish the thought! It is not true! Riches, when they come in huge quantities, are never the result of HARD work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance or luck.”

If this is a new belief for you, I recognize that it may be “uncomfortable.” Your mom and/or dad taught you that to get ahead you have to “work hard.” That’s what they did. Look around you, there are a lot of people working very hard, and they are not living the life they would like to live. What’s sad is, most people haven’t given it a second thought of the life they’d like live.

So, even though my intent was to write about PERSISTENCE, this article is more about WHAT DO YOU WANT? If you have been too busy working hard, take some time out TODAY – do it now – don’t put this off (procrastinate), take your lunch hour, or take a break, don’t look at your e-mail, or facebook, or whatever it is you do that is not necessary right now, and start to write down “what do I really want?” You don’t have to show this to anyone. What do you want? Give yourself permission to dream.

You DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT, now you have something to be PERSISTENT about.

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Posted by Jeanny Campbell at 5:58 PM