4CHUNE

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas Edison.

I can come up with at least a hundred nice quotes like the one above about persistence. But why in the world didn't I remember any of them when I quit my last task half way? That tells me - Persistence is not something that you can "remember" from a book. Its part of your character. Molding one's character requires a LOT of effort, discipline, and dedication. We are who we are because of the way we have programmed ourselves for decades. We cant change ourselves overnight.

How do we change this? How do we learn persistence? By changing the attitude. What do we think of our own words? I mean our attitude needs a major surgery if we can't respect our own words. For example, If I promised my wife i would do something, I am bound by my own words. She may forgive me if I didn't do it because i had a problem finishing the task or something else came up. But its my duty to not get derailed. A friend of mine, who is an extremely successful, and a very rich individual once said - Never give up, go around it, go below it, go above it, or go through it..... but don't let something stop you there".




This is a very inspirational video. Obviously, John had a great attitude. He didn't pity himself. Instead, he was thinking of his "Purpose" of being at the Olympics. One definition of character is Remembering your own words long after the spirit in whih you gave those words has left you. When that is right, we will never have the problem in completing the task.