Staying power

Hello, we are gradually entering into the “ember” months, a time when a lot of people are getting tired and feeling the urge to take a break. Whilst rest is vital, it’s also very important not to drop the momentum as the year gradually draws to an end.  In this article, I will be sharing my thoughts on the theme – Staying Power.

One of my favourite quotes of all time is Robert Schuller’s – “Tough times never last but tough people do” and I say these words to myself every time.

Have you ever wondered how some people are completely ruined by a business failure, while some others face the same difficulty, recover and go on to live a value-adding life? History is full of stories of people who have overcome difficult seasons and have moved on to accomplish feats we still celebrate today. In most of these cases, there’s nothing particularly special about these people who manage to come out on top; they simply developed the ability to persevere.

“Never, never, never, never give up”- Winston Churchill

An interesting personality is Stephen King.  His mother called him Stevie. He fancied himself a writer and wrote his first story before he was old enough to shave. His mother liked it and said it was good enough to be in a book.

A few years later, he sent one of his stories to a magazine, hoping to get it published. Unlike his mother, they rejected it. Stephen nailed the rejection letter to his bedroom wall and kept writing. By the time he was old enough to drive, he had replaced the nail with a spike large enough to hold the ream of rejection letters that had accumulated. Still, he kept writing.

Ten years came and went, along with many more rejection letters. Stephen, now a struggling 26-year-old school teacher with a wife and two children receives a telegram from Doubleday publishing. They tried to call him on the phone, but Stephen and his wife were too broke at the time to afford telephone service. That was about to change though, because the telegram was not another rejection letter.

Doubleday had agreed to publish Stephen’s first novel, a horror story about Carrie White. They paid him a $2,500 advance for the book. Not long after, paperback rights to Carrie sold for $400,000 and Stephen King was well on his way to becoming one of the most prolific and successful writers of modern times.

One thing that sticks out from Stephen’s story is his ability to persevere in tough times. Simply put, perseverance is to be persistent in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. I call it –  “Staying Power” or “Stickability.”

Like I always say; “Life rewards consistency, stay long enough to reap the rewards of your efforts.”

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” – Roger Crawford.

In reality, we will all face challenges in life, have push backs, things won’t work well but you ultimately need to determine whether all these setbacks will defeat you or not in the long run.

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King.

So how do you do that? How do you push on when you’re at your lowest and feel defeated?

Let Me Share 3 Things You Need to Do to Improve Your Staying Power:

1.   Motivate Yourself

“Don’t stop when you are tired, stop when you are done” – Wesley Snipes. 

Motivation is the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviour. Achieving our goals is never easy. It’s why knowing how to stay motivated is incredibly important in the long term.

There are a million ways you can spend time motivating yourself. You could read inspirational stories, listen to positive podcasts or watch videos about people who have overcome great obstacles in life. There is no difference between them and you. If they can achieve it, so can you!

2.   Be Passionate

“For you to stay driven, you must be passionate.” – FBO

Have you heard about the phrase “flow state”?

This is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity.  When you are in the right mood, you enter the flow state and become so focused that you are fully engulfed in the work and achieve viable results. It is easier for you to enter the flow state if you are passionate about the things that you do.

Your passion fuels your motivation. Oftentimes, people fail to achieve the success they desire because they lack the passion. In the beginning, they are so motivated with their newly set goals. But after a while, when they don’t get the results they want, they start to lose steam.

“Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.” –Jon Bon Jovi

3.   Take Care of Yourself

You are made up of three entities – Mind, Body and Spirit. When taking care of you, you must cater to the whole of you!

Warren Buffett Says; “you’ll be a wreck if you don’t take care of your mind and body.”

1. a)   Mind: Your mind is the seat of your emotions, intellect and will. We all may fall prey to feelings of frustration and stress. However, nothing dampens enthusiasm like feeling defeated. Learn to become resilient and get to know how you de-stress and relax. To live a value-adding life, feed your mind by reading, traveling, opening yourself to new experiences etc. These activities will benefit you in a variety of ways, they will aid in your self-development and mental progress amongst others. So, commit to feeding your mind as it is a gateway to improving your Staying Power.
2. b)   Body: Having a healthy body is critical to developing your Staying Power. Eat the right things, exercise and follow up on your health. The human body has often been likened to a car – like your car, your body also needs proper care and maintenance. To keep a car in good operating condition, it requires regular servicing likewise your body. You need to rest, go for regular medical check-ups, exercise etc. Remember no matter how great your dreams and aspirations are, you need to be physically fit to achieve them. So, take care of your body.
3. c)   Spirit: For me, it is my faith. You need to figure out what works for you. Having strong beliefs goes a long way towards ensuring you are able to endure and survive through difficult and hard times. In my opinion, spirituality is a major catalyst in enhancing your drive to live a value-adding life.

According to psychologists, taking care of your mind, body and spirit raises the level of dopamine in your brain. This chemical plays a role in how we feel pleasure and is a big part of our unique human ability to think and plan.

Therefore, always ensure to take care of you.

In the second part of this article, I will be sharing my thoughts on what comes after you have developed your Staying Power. I call it  “The Other Side of Staying Power”. 

Till the next time we meet here, remember we all have “A Role to Play.”

Bank-Olemoh is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Education Interventions.