With the singer P!nk here in Adelaide at the moment, I’m reminded of one of her songs called “Try”.   There is a great chorus which is:

Where there is desire
There is gonna be a flame
Where there is a flame
Someone’s bound to get burned
But just because it burns
Doesn’t mean you’re gonna die
You’ve gotta get up and try try try

This song strongly resonates with me around the value of persistence which is one of the most underrated qualities of successful people and leadership. The ability to get back up after being knocked down, be rejected by clients, lose a tender or work through difficult times.   Hard to go through but even more challenging to front up for more of it day after day, week after week, year upon year. 

The real insight of the lyrics above is it relates to how to strengthen persistence around desire.  What I have learnt over the last couple of years is that the stronger the desire or your passion, the more persistent you will be in the pursuit of success.  Without having the desire, you will be more likely to give up, become distracted or pursue something else.   The only way you strengthen your desire is to love what you do, have genuine passion about it to the point where it becomes a cause.  A cause that is unwavering and you are totally committed to.

Having the desire means you also take the risks near the flame to ensure you live with no regrets.   The best fruit is always out on the limbs.   You will get burnt or fall sometimes but the rewards will be significant.  You will also have some people challenged by what you do, what you achieve or the difficult decisions you make along the way.

Persistence is about always fronting up, working hard and not letting people keep you down.  The stronger your desire, the stronger the passion and the less likely you will stay down.   Without the passion for what you do, the persistence to keep showing up will not be strong.     Keep doing things you don’t enjoy and your persistence is weak or non existent.  Design your personal and professional life around your passions and watch your persistence become a strength that will drive your success.

Giving up early is the easy thing to do.  Getting up and continuing to try will mean you live a life of no regrets and when the success is achieved, you are able to reflect on those more challenging times as the little bit of manure that it took for you to grow flowers.   And those flowers will smell sweet and look beautiful!