There’s no special skill to not giving up.
You aren’t born with any special genomes that automatically make you less likely to quit.
The truth is that every day you face tough choices and scary obstacles.
On one hand, you have the things you want for yourself — money, happiness, fitness, friends and fulfillment.
On the other hand, you have a million different unforeseen problems that will challenge you and shake your faith in your ability to keep going — critics, failure, lack of resources and experience, and fear.
The more you think about it, the less logical it seems that you will actually end up winning.
The more unreasonable it sounds that your goal is something that you can actually achieve.
If you listen to the crazy thoughts running through your head, it is a waste of your time and effort to keep investing in yourself when it’s a foregone conclusion that it’s never going to work.
You’re not the only one who thinks that way. Everyone does. Everyone you ever meet thinks about quitting.
What separates winners from losers is something very simple.
Winners find a way to persist. They insist on forward progress.
Even if it’s small. Barely noticeable.
They aren’t willing to throw it all away.
They want more of what could be more than they want the pain to go away.
And so they find a way to keep trying. They get inside their own head to think their way forward:
- They pump themselves up with motivating thoughts.
- They make silly bargains about quitting later.
- They find friends to help them make the journey.
- They get angry at themselves for even thinking about quitting.
It’s not pretty. It’s not the formula you would read about in a best-selling book.
But it’s the secret of their success.
And it could be your secret as well.
You don’t have it any worse than anyone else.
Your problems aren’t any more devastating than those around you.
Your ability to think your way forward is ultimately the only thing that will separate you from winning or a lifetime of excuses.
Find a reason to do one more thing. Today. And every day.