What about your job?  Do you have to persist at that, even if it’s just getting up and going to work?  Isn’t that a form of persistence?  What about your own personal development and education?  Did reading come the first time you tried?  How about algebra?  A foreign language?

No, none of these things came to you the very first time that you tried them.  I would even venture to say that none of them were particularly easy?  They all required one thing: persistence.

Make it Simple

As I talked about in The Value of Simplicity, you should be able to make your persistent action simple.  Let’s take what I’m doing right now, for example.  I am sitting in a chair, at a table, writing out my ideas and thoughts on how a person can live life more abundantly.  I am writing this in hopes of improving your quality of life.  I hope that these words, whenever, however, and wherever they reach you will impact you in some positive way.  This is the whole premise of the website that you are currently visiting.

Did you notice anything in particular?  My action is simple, and persistent. I chose to write articles (simple persistent action) in hopes of helping other people.  I write these articles as much as time will allow with the desire of improving my own quality of life, and yours as well.

To be persistent in any way, simple or not, is extremely valuable.  It develops resilience, pride, and a hard working attitude.  To be persistent in love is not a simple task when you think about what is all involved in that process.  But all of those actions are backed by a simple question, how can I show this person my love for them in the best way possible?  You persistently pursue that goal, because the desired outcome is to let that person know that you love them.

This kind of persistence is true in any situation.  You want to start a business?  Draw up or follow a model that has proven success, set up a set of simple actions to follow, and persistently perform those actions.  If I want to make this website into the image of what I have in my head (with thousands of articles and ways to help people live more abundantly) I have to follow the persistent action of building this website and filling it with valuable content.

Make it Right

Persistence is a wonderful trait to develop, and you should develop it as much and as soon as possible.  But you must make sure that the thing that you are being persistent at is something that will ultimately achieve your goal.  If you want to make more friends, but you persistently avoid contact and interaction with other people, you are shooting yourself in the foot.  Don’t be persistent at something that will hurt you.  This sounds simple and obvious, but I know of many people (myself included) that struggle with persistent and habitual actions that lead to problems.  For some reason, even though we know we are hurting ourselves, we consistently do that particular things anyway.  Going out and getting drunk every weekend, or smoking a pack of cigarettes everyday hurts you as a person, and it probably has damaged some of the important relationships in your life.

Right now, think of something that you do that you wish you didn’t, something that is counter-intuitive to the goals that you have for your life or for the immediate goals of the future.  Got it?  Now, STOP DOING IT!  I know that you have heard this before, and so have I.  I know that I have gone out and done the exact same thing even though I know that it would hurt me.  But, we must stop persistently performing actions that hurt us and those around us.  Things that stop us from achieving our goals, and becoming better, more aware, and more abundant people.  Think of what you must do to stop yourself from doing whatever it is that you are doing that hurts you, make the steps simple, actionable, and persistently follow those steps!

Do It!

Hopefully you have read the other articles in this series.  If you have, it’s time to make a change in your life.  Think of one thing that you want to do, not do, change, start, accomplish, perform, initiate, or begin.  Okay, now write it down!  I am going to use a personal example for you to follow.

“I will make a website that allows people to grow and live more abundantly.”

Now make a list of goals that you have.

• I will help as many people as possible.
• I will make it fun and easy to use.
• I will consistently live out the articles that I write.

Now make a list of steps to accomplish those goals

• I will write articles build webpages that pertain to as many people as possible, and the webpages will be easily accessible.
• I will learn how to make a fun and easy to use website by exploring webpage creation software.
• I will have others keep me accountable for what I write.

Now all I have to do is follow those steps!  I have to write articles and build webpages, put them on a website, and follow my own advice.

Your list may be more or less detailed than this, depending on what you are wanting to accomplish, but use this as a guide if it helps you.

Persistence is the key to success.  Persistence brought about the invention of the light bulb, the telephone, cars, planes, business, and anything that man wanted to achieve.  Persistence brings about love, success, and anything that you apply this principle to.  Simply, actionably, and persistently pursue your goals, and you will achieve them!

The desire for change or improvement means a change in the way you do something, do something new, or stopping yourself from doing something.  All of these cases require an action of some sort to achieve the result.  

It boils down to this – Do nothing, Change nothing.  

The value of taking action is how we change and grow as individuals.  Change inspires growth, growth inspires progression, and progression makes you a more advanced and developed individual.  You become a better you.  Think about it this way, what if you had never gone to school?  Had best friends?  Had a job?  Ran?  Walked? Jumped?  Spoken?  All of these actions gave way to growth in you as an individual.  Let’s say you decide to go for a run.  When you ran, you knew what it felt like to have the wind in your hair, to feel your legs push against the ground and propel you forward.  You felt your muscles contract and the breath quicken in your lungs.  Your heart accelerated.  If you ran further, you dealt with the pain.  You felt fire in your legs and pushed through it.  Eventually, you might have even felt a runner’s high.  All these experiences tied into the one action that you took.  You ran.  And all of these experience gave way to growth.  Your muscles broke down and rebuilt themselves anew.  You became slightly faster and stronger.  You could go a little bit further.  If you kept pursuing running, you could eventually run marathons.  Also, a plethora of side effects would take place.

You would have a stronger heart, and a stronger body.  You would experience less stress.  You would lose your excess body fat.  You would have more energy.  All of these things because of one action that you took.  You decided to run.  (I’m an avid runner myself ; )

This is the value of action.  Notice what kind of action it was.  It was simple.  To achieve your goal you had to do one thing. Run.  Yes, there are many things that would help you with this goal.  Such as special workout, a better diet, and a partner to help you along the way.  These things would help, but you would still get your desired result if you just ran.  

Along the way, you figure out what works best for you, and how to achieve the best results possible.  These things come after the fact of actually performing the act.  You can calibrate yourself along the way.  You get better and better at achieving the results that you desire.  The most important thing is to take action.

Thought vs. Action

Many of us (myself included) decide that the best way to go about things is to learn everything about something before we actually dive into it.  This makes us feel safer and keeps us in our comfort zones.  We gradually try to grasp concepts of things, and we try to expand our knowledge or growth in a subject bit by bit.  This is not  the way to go about learning.  Yet this is the action we take.  This is what we are taught all of our lives.  Our parents cautioned us to learn as much as we could about something before we did it.  Our high schools and colleges gave us books and lectures.  They made us regurgitate this knowledge on a test, and wham-o you have a degree.  

Out of all of those experiences, what did you actually learn?  You learned about abstract ideas or processes, but once you got out and got some real-world experience how much of it held true?  Sure, some if it probably did.  The very little that you actually remembered anyways.  But how much faster did you grow once you exposed yourself to it everyday?  When you actually took action?  You can’t learn how to run through a book.  You can’t learn how to play an instrument through a book.  Truth is, you can’t learn how to do much with a book on the subject.  Books help, and they should definitely supplement your real world experiences, but they should by no means be your only experience.  

I am convinced (and it has been made evident in my own life) that the best way to achieve growth in any area is actually delving into that area headfirst.  Really, give your time to focus in on that area for a couple weeks or however long it takes to get the results you want and then move on to a different area.  The intense, laser-like focus allows you to see exponential growth in any area.  Once you have achieved the level of growth that you desire, you can just put that area of your life on maintenance.  This all boils down to taking action to achieve.  

Have you met one of those people that always say they are going to do something, but never do?  Like “I’m going to get better grades” or “I’m going to get a promotion” or “I’m going to start my own business”, but then they never take action to achieve these goals.  There is always an excuse that they have.  “I’m too busy just right now, but really soon I will.”  Here is some news for those of you out there that have said this.  Soon is not now.  At the very least give yourself a deadline to achieve your results!  

I am sure that there is something else in your life that does not really need your attention, but you give it your time anyway.  Let’s name the big one.  TV.  Honestly, what have you learned from your TV that has really just changed your life, and made it that much better?  Your answer is probably “Not much. . .”  So why give it your time?  Yes, we all need to be entertained, and there are valuable lessons to be learned by watching TV or movie.  But wouldn’t you rather take that extra 2 to 3 or maybe even more hours a day back?  Do you realize that if you watch TV (movies included) for 2 hours a day that you will spend a month of your life in front of a television this year?  If you just cut that in half you would gain back an extra 2 weeks of your life to start that business, or go for that run, or to study for those grades, or get that promotion, or whatever you are trying to achieve.  

The point that I am trying to drive home is the fact that taking action is absolutely pivotal to your success in whatever endeavor you are pursuing.

The Importance of Real World-Experience

Real world experience always trumps book smarts.  Just because a book says that something should work a certain way does not mean that it will.  That book was written from that authors point of view, in that authors time period, with that authors experiences.  You may have to take a completely different route to get to the same place that they did.  Lots of people may agree that if you copy the actions of the person you are trying to emulate you will get the same results.  False.  No.  Wrong.  Each of us are individuals with unique experiences and backgrounds.  Just because your friend or mentor tried something and it worked does not mean it will work for you.  

That being said, it is important to take action and try things to see if they will work.  Just take the time to think and have a fairly good idea of where this action will take you.  This is why it is important to get real-world experience as soon as possible.  If you want to learn how to build something, actually go build it.  If you want to learn how to invest in stocks, go invest in stocks.  You will make mistakes, and you will fail miserably, but you will have gained valuable knowledge that could not have been gained any faster any other way.  That knowledge you will take with you into your next endeavor, and in time you will start succeeding and getting the results that you want.

Don’t rely just on your real-world experiences though.  Taking advice from others, reading books by experts, and watching the experts may save you some valuable time and mistakes.  Real world experiences should be supplemented by other sources to achieve your goal.

Did you notice anything about the last three paragraphs?  They all required action to get the results.  

I Just Don’t Have the Time!

Lame.  You have all the time in the world if you would just invest it wisely in what you actually want to get out of your life.  If you still think you don’t have the time, I have something for you

Media Fast.

What is a Media Fast?  A media fast is a 30 day event in which you cut off all media input as much as possible.  This sounds fairly extreme, but there are some exceptions.  You may watch movies IF they are positive and motivational, same for things that you read etc.  No news, barely any TV, no video games, nothing comes in unless it is positive.  

Now you may be thinking “But, how will I know what’s going on in the country?” or “What about my favorite TV show?”  Trust me, if it’s important the news will reach you.  Your friends will be talking about it, and you will hear it.  If it is really that important, the news will reach you, so don’t worry.

Going on this media fast and only putting positive ideas into your system serves a dual purpose.  First, it changes your mindset.  The first couple days of your fast you will probably experience some withdrawal from you usual media input.  Completely normal.  Just stick it out, and when you think you just have to watch some TV, or you start reasoning with yourself saying “I think this might be motivational. . .” go and invest that time in the things that you said you didn’t have time for.  Research that online business, get that promotion, spend time with your family, go out with friends, listen to motivational speakers, read motivational books, do something that will actually matter.  After a couple of weeks you may notice that you just generally feel better all around.  You are happier, healthier, and smiling more.  This mindset change takes place because of what you have put into your mind.  As they say “garbage in, garbage out.”  Invest time in yourself to give yourself this positive, I-can-do-it attitude and you won’t regret it.

Secondly, You will notice that you have a LOT more free time on your hands.  I know that when I did this a couple years ago, I just didn’t know what to do with my extra time.  Well, by now, you should now what to do with your extra time.  Do all of those things that you have been wanting to do, but just couldn’t seem to find the time to.  Don’t just sit around and slack off, take action!  Take this media fast (or mental fast as some may call it) 

After you get done, you will probably notice that you haven’t really missed the things that you thought that you would.  The same thing happened to me.  I don’t really miss watching all those TV shows and all of the other things.  Once I was done with my fast I put a couple things back into my life and refined what I would let in.  But it helped me a great deal get some goals accomplished that I had been struggling to find the time to find to get done, and it made me think about what I was actually putting into my mind and life.  After the fast I definitely put a filter up of what I will and won’t tolerate, because of all of the negative ramifications that certain things could have in my life.  The same will probably happen for you!

Take Action, NOW

If you have taken the time to read this article and absorb some if its ideas, do not just close this page and go on with your life.  Take a second and think of that one thing that you are wanting to grow in, or change, or start.  Got it?  Now go do it.  Think of at least one way that you could get a start on whatever you are wanting to work on, and actually get up and go do it right now.  Consider doing the mental media fast and see if you have a change in your mind and life for the better.  If you don’t, then go back to the way you have been living and move on with your life. 

But think about this.  You read this article because you wanted to learn how to exact change in your life.  Now, after all of the reading about change you have just done, you are going to go about things the exact same way that you were before?  The way that brought you to some sort of dissatisfaction with your life, so you went looking how to change it?  If that’s what you want, then go ahead and go back to living the way that is comfortable for you.  You just aren’t read for change yet.  Your desire to change is not great enough to take action, and that’s okay.  But, for those of you that are ready to take the next step, to learn, to grow, to accomplish, and to achieve; take some of these ideas to heart and start changing your life.  

Remember:  Do nothing, Change nothing.

Complex answers aren’t all that they are cracked up to be.  A complex answer requires a complex execution.  This is where a person loses heart or the strength to follow through.  The task before them seems so daunting because it will take so much more of their time to execute.  

In my experience, the simpler I make an action, the easier the action is to execute and therefore get the desired results.  Let’s say I wanted to lose weight.  I could join a weight loss program, look up complex diets, and figure out complex ratios that may or may not directly effect my weight.  These are the complex answers to my problem or desired outcome.  Here is the simple one.  Lower my caloric intake, and increase my exercise regimen.  Fewer calories taken in and more calories burned gets my desired result, loss of excess weight.

The same principle or value holds true in many situations.  Want to get better grades?  Study more and study effectively.  Want to have more friends?  Make it your goal to talk to one new person everyday and invite them out to do something.  Want to have better relationships with your friends?  Be nicer.  Want to make more money?  Work more.  (Actually, that was a trick question.  There are better ways to make money than working more hours at a mind-numbing, time-consuming job.  More on that in the future.)  

Don’t get caught up in the hooplah of “Well if I do this, then that, then maybe this will come along so I will have the opportunity to do this and. . .”  Another way to think about it is to make a simple ratio for your desired result, and work that system.  This kind of idea is often followed in sales.  Let’s say you sell furniture.  Start counting how many people it takes to talk to until you get someone to buy a piece of furniture.  20 people?  Okay, you got your ratio. 20:1.  Now you just have to up the people that you talk to, to up your furniture sales, to up your income.  It’s that simple.  

The Danger of Simplicity

While simple answers are usually best, they may not always be right.  Some problems require a little more complexity in order to achieve a solution.  BUT, the fact still stands that keeping it simple is the best policy.  

While you may have heard all of this advice before, you may not have heard the following advice.  Simplicity requires a lot of thought.  In order to get your desired results, you must plan out the actions to take, not take actions blindly.   

There is a 3 step process to obtaining simple answers:

1. Desire for change
2. Thinking stage
3. Implementation of solution

The thinking part of the process must not be ignored, or you end up wasting your time pursuing a wrong or inefficient course of action.  

Simplicity and Change

People grow and people change.  That’s probably part of the reason that you are reading this right now.  You want to learn how to change your life, and for the better.  You want more out of life than you have right now, and you looking for answers and solutions.  This change is a good thing.  It keeps you progressing as a person.  

Just as people change, so will your solutions to problems that you have right now.  Something that makes sense to do now, and is a simple solution, may not be the best way to go about doing things later on.  Example:  It may be good to invest in the stock market, or a certain company for a period of time; but eventually you should withdraw that investment.  

Changing solutions is normal.  Changing solutions may even be a good thing.  It at least means that you are thinking about solving your problem or fulfilling your desire in a more meaningful and efficient way.  Don’t be afraid to change.

That being said, think long term.  Ask yourself questions such as “Do I really want this?  Is this going to help me in the long run?  Will I want to do this forever?  Is it worth the time involved?  Is it doable?”  By asking these questions now, you avoid the down the road bumps and failures, because you have successfully planned for these bumps and you have decided that it is worth it to keep pursuing your goal before you even physically start to pursue it.  

I have found that thinking long term often times helps to realize what is really important to pursue, and what isn’t actually that important.  Thinking this way has helped me tremendously.  A personal example would be money.  When I was younger I planned on pursuing a medical career in order to have money.  Come to find out that I hate chemistry and biology.  Now what?  Later on, I realized that money is not a goal that should be pursued above all else.  Sure, money is nice to have, but it doesn’t replace friendships, experiences, and true genuine love.  Living abundantly may include money, but that is only a side goal.  What happens when you die?  You don’t take anything physical with you, do you?  No, the only thing that you have are the personal experiences that you had when you were alive.  Make sure to look ahead.  Make sure what you want is actually worth going after.

Simply Simple

You may be thinking “Why, this is quite a long article about making things simple…”  Very true.  Let’s sum it up.

1.  Desire for change

       –  This step is easy.  You want something to be different.  So you change it.

2.  Thinking Stage 

       –  How are you going to reach your goal?  Is your goal worth reaching?  

3.  Implementation of plan 

       –  Follow your simple plan until it works! Optimize your plan as you go along.

And for those times when all else fails, remember this motto: “keep it simple, stupid.” : )

Do you remember the smart kid in the class?  You know, the one who knew all the answers.  The one with the great parents.  The one with the money.  The one who had great friends.  The one who had it made. 

Have you ever thought “If only I could have this” or “If this wasn’t in my life”? Do you want to know how the smart kid in the class came to having it all the things that he wanted?  He never thought those thoughts.

Sitting on the sidelines and watching seems to be the common pastime of most human beings today.  We sit and watch our life pass us by.  We are paralyzed by our fear of the unknown and will do anything to avoid things that are new and foreign.  (I think these are called excuses.)  The lives of other people are more interesting to most of them than the life that is unfolding right in front of their eyes.  Does anyone else see this as a problem?

Personally, there have been many times in my life where I should have done things that I didn’t.  I wish I would have stuck with playing the piano.  I wish I would have made more friends.  I wish I would have gotten better grades.  I wish I would have not wasted so much of my time doing things that didn’t matter.  

The number one regret of anyone that I have asked always starts out “Well, I wish I would have -fill in the blank-”

There have been many times in my life that I have felt stuck in a certain state of being.  Trapped by what I later learned to be fear that was based on nothing logical.  It was only me telling myself that this is the way that things are, and I just have to accept that and move on with my life.  To be blunt, I believe that this way of thinking is lies, based on falsehood, and sprinkled with deceit.  Lies that I have told myself to be true.  

I have put limitations on myself that are based on nothing but what I think that I can achieve.  It’s as Theodore Roosevelt said “If you think you can or can’t do something, you are always right.”  This isn’t a bunch of mumbo jumbo, feel good nonsense.  This is a true fact that so many of lose sight of, myself included.  

To often have I stopped myself from achieving something great.  This is common problem that people face.  To achieve something great doesn’t mean that you have to change the world.  Greatness comes from the ability to change ourselves for the better.  I truly believe that those of us who think they are great, become great.  

Growth and Achievement

Right now, I can think of at least 10 things that I want to change or do better in my life.  So what’s stopping me from making those changes or achieving those goals.  Simple answer.  Me.  So what’s stopping you from achieving your goals and ambitions, however big or small they may be?  Another simple answer. You.  Many times we feel victim to circumstance, or to the will or influence of other people in our lives.  It doesn’t have to, and neither should it be, this way.  

The people that I wish I was more like all have certain characteristics in common.  These characteristics are the basis of all of our personal growth and achievements.  There are three values that my “heroes” have in common.

1. Simplicity
2. Action
3. Persistence

All of the successful people in my life embody these characteristics.  The more successful the person, the better they are at applying these values.  These three values can be applied to almost any area of life.  If you want to see huge growth in an area of your life, apply these three principles to it. 

Application of the Three Values

Putting these values into motion is the hardest part of the process.  The more you do it the better you become at it.  This can be applied to whatever you are wanting to change or improve.  It can be applied to skills, relationships, business, music, productivity, time management, and what I think to be most important; love.  

The ability to apply these principles is something that your growth in any area of life depends on.  Sure, you can go for complex solutions, lazy answers, and half-hearted efforts, but is that really the kind of person that you want to be?  Is that the kind of person that you want to be known as?  Or do you want to be the person that people look up to?  The choice is yours to make.  If you want to coast through life, go ahead.  Nobody is stopping you, because it is a choice that you are making.  

The more that I live and experience life, the more that I see the things that I think are important, often aren’t.  The things that I should have paid attention to, I didn’t.  This made me upset and frustrated for awhile, because I knew that I could never go back and change those events.  I could never actually accomplish my lists of “I wish I would have” because they were only relevant to the past.  

Take at look at the last two sentences that I wrote.  Therein lies the answer to my problem (simple, wasn’t it?).  I could never  go back and do things differently.  If I can never go back and change things that are in my past, then why should I let it dictate what I do with my life now?  Live, Learn, Love.  Live the life you were given as best you can.  Learn from your mistakes.  Love regardless.  

After I got past my past (nice play on words, eh?), I was able to think about how I want the future of my life to turn out.  Where do I want to go?  What do I want to do?  etc.  These all brought up a question that had to be answered before any of the other answers became a reality.  How am I going to get there?  What can I do to ensure that I get there, and live a fuller life along the way?  There are many things that lead to a full life, and I am sure that I will be figuring these things out until the day that I die; but, I know that there are things that I have learned that can be applied now that will lead me in the direction of my hopes and dreams.  The three main values that I can apply to my life are: Simplicity, Action, and Persistence.  

I invite you to apply these principles to your life and see what wonderful changes may come about.  The next articles that I write will deal with each of these core values, and give you practical ways to implement them in your life.  Don’t be afraid of change, it’s how we grow and learn in the world that we live in.