The power of persistence.

We underestimate the power of persistence for success. When we have a goal, we put maximum effort into certain strategies. We spend a lot of time on planning, reading, social media strategies or training. After a couple of weeks, we are not able to maintain the investment of time and effort and we stop. Disappointed, because success is failing to appear, we wonder what we did wrong.

Success is a marathon distance

The answer is quite simple. Success is more often a marathon than a sprint distance. Planning our strategies and effort like a sprint requires time and energy we can not afford over a longer period of time.

Maybe the strategies were perfectly selected for the goal. But we forgot to consider our ability to sustain and to persist with the amount of energy and time required.

Small steps and persistence are keys to success

Next time you have a goal, plan with small steps. Be aware that you will have to be persistent over a longer period of time. Done persistently over days, weeks and months, the impact of small steps is surprising. Don’t forget to compare the planned steps with your ability and willingness to show up each day and to put in the work in order to succeed.

3 examples to illustrate the astonishing power of small steps:

1. Saving 100 calories each day adds up to the number of calories in 5.2 kg of body fat over the period of 1 year (1).
2. Investing 15 extra minutes in your training each day results in more than 91 hours of extra training to improve your skills within one year.
3. Saving 1 hour of time we used to spend with TV, Netflix or social media each day, results in more than 45 working days of 8 hours over the period of one year. Investing these days in our education or a healthy lifestyle will have an incredible impact on our life quality.

(1) The same is true if you exceed your energy requirements each day by just 200 calories (which equals just one small beer), it might lead to a weight gain of 11 kg in one year!

Here you can find our quote: A river cuts through a rock