Achieving Goals: The Remaining 90% - Sheer Persistence

Achieving goals requires persistence. Here's the proof: In 1915 Ty Cobb set up an amazing baseball record of stealing 96 bases. Seven years later Max Carey set the second-best record with 51 stolen bases.

Was Cobb twice as good as Carey?

Consider this: Cobb made 134 attempts. Carey made 53.

So Carey's average was much better.

Cobb however made 81 more tries and was rewarded with 44 more stolen bases.

Frank Bettger makes this strong point on page 238 of his fascinating classic: How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling

When you get behind the big success stories in any given field, you often find the most successful have made more attempts and spent longer hours at the given task than anyone else.

In other words, they give the law of averages a chance to work in their favor! They just keep on striking out, often against all odds.

With achieving goals, this sterling quality of persistence and its bed-fellow perseverance, is absolutely essential.

Yes the previous six steps are also essential and crucial BUT, if you do not persist, your wonderful plan can go down the drain. Your vivid mental images can just evaporate into thin air. Achieving goals simply becomes wishful thinking.

Achieving goals requires that you keep at it day in day out.

Then you are GUARANTEED results - eventually!

To maintain this kind of momentum you have to develop mental toughness.

To be mentally tough means you minimize the effects of discouragement and you turn negatives into positives.

Jack Black, in his illuminating book "MindStore", uses a computer expression to combat negativity - "Delete that Programme".

Whenever a negative thought comes into your mind or when others make negative comments, say to yourself, "Delete that Programme" and replace it with a positive thought.

For example, when you catch yourself thinking, "This is just not working, this is useless and a waste of time", trigger mental toughness by saying "DELETE THAT PROGRAMME".

Instead think: "What do I need to do to make this work!"

Admittedly, negative mental habits are hard to break.

It takes time and persistence but oh, the rewards when you do!

Do we understand then why the title of this final session is:

"Achieving Goals: The Remaining 90% - Sheer Persistence"?

It really does come down to that.

Just keep on going, persist, persist, persist, and let the good old law of averages work for you.

Achieving goals WILL become your reality!

This article is part of the Goal Setting Blueprint, a 20 minute tutorial on achieving sucess in goal setting.

Visit http://www.about-goal-setting.com for the rest of the tutorial.

In The News:


Goal-setting maverick accomplished much in life
Vancouver Sun,  Canada - Jul 8, 2008
I had the privilege and pleasure of working for Bob Ackles as an SFU student a few years ago, during the time that he began collaborating with Ian Mulgrew ...

Second Life,
CNET News, CA - 14 hours ago
LifeTango's brainstorm wizard steps you through the goal-setting process, nicely leaving each item private by default. You can also send items on your list ...

G-8: Nations must share CO2 goal / Major powers ask parties to UN ...
The Daily Yomiuri, Japan - 16 hours ago
The G-8 leaders praised the Japanese-proposed sectoral approaches--the idea of setting a reduction goal for each industrial sector--as "useful tools" for ...

Open book: Tell-all Web site should be Utah's goal
Salt Lake Tribune, United States - 11 hours ago
Lawmakers on the board have been wisely arguing in favor of setting the table for full exposure and disclosure by building a maximum-capacity, fully stoked ...

Business ideas and goal-setting
Grand Junction Free Press, Colorado - Jul 3, 2008
By Sheri Fisher When my kids were younger, it felt like life would be better if my hands could simply keep up with the voice in my head. ...

Metformin may help obese teen girls lose weight
Reuters India, India - 18 hours ago
In the current study, researchers evaluated the effect of adding metformin versus placebo to a program of personal diet and exercise goal-setting for 85 ...

Environmentalists unhappy with G8 emissions goal
Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom - Jul 8, 2008
However, the Irish branch of Friends of the Earth says the G8 countries are responsible for the vast majority of pollution and should be setting binding ...

Gory day in Afghanistan offers snapshot of record-setting violence
The Canadian Press,  Afghanistan - Jul 7, 2008
A reputed Afghan expert argues that's precisely the insurgents' goal: to slowly win local support while a steady drip of bombings, suicide-attacks, ...

New Online Goal-Setting and Assessment Tool Provides Colleges and ...
PR Web (press release), WA - Jun 30, 2008
Goal Settingāˆ’Students and institutions can set micro- and macro-level goals, as well as define realistic deadlines. To ensure persistence, UPortfolio ...

Setting goals and planning business strategies
ITvoir, India - Jul 2, 2008
Ever done a business without any goal setting and real planning on business strategies, and still got success. Then, you should be applauded, but the irony ...
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