Lean Quote: Persistence Makes all the Difference

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit."   —  Bear Bryant 

When you’re pursuing a worthwhile goal it’s almost inevitable that at some point you’ll think one or more of the following: 

“This is harder than I thought it would be.” 

“Why is this taking so long?” 

“I’m getting nowhere with this.” 

“I keep failing at this goal.” 

“I can’t do this. What was I thinking?” 

And when you do have one—or more—of these thoughts, it’s very likely that you’ll want to give up. 

Not giving up is a mindset. And it’s a mindset that you can adopt. What you do need is to constantly tell yourself the following: 

I persist when things get tough. 

I will either find a way or make one. 

Every problem has a solution, and I have the perfect ability to find it. 

Every day I gain more knowledge and insight about what works and what doesn’t, which means I’m getting stronger and wiser. 

Setbacks are temporary. 

I will find a way through this. 

Think! What’s the best thing to do now? 

Having an “I won’t quit” mindset will make it much easier for you to persist—and refuse to give up—until you achieve your goal. 

When you feel like quitting, look at all your reasons why your goal is so important to you. If need be, add even more reasons why. The greater the quantity of reasons—and the stronger the reasons—that you have to keep going, the more likely it is that you won’t quit. 

Refusing to give up doesn’t mean that you should simply keep doing the same thing over and over again. If the approach that you’re currently using isn’t working, try a different approach. Continue in this way until you find a method, technique, or strategy that does work. 

When you want to quit, push yourself to keep taking consistent action toward the achievement of your goal. Even if you haven’t seen results yet, you never know what may be happening underneath the surface. 

Just because you can’t see anything yet, although you’ve been working on your goal for awhile, this doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. You may be closer to achieving your dream than you think. Don’t give up, when you could be just moments away from succeeding. Keep chipping away. 

Achieving large, hairy goals isn’t easy. Somewhere along the way it’s very likely that you’ll want to quit. But when you feel like quitting, don’t give up. Live your best life by refusing to quit.