The Great Power of Persistence

Obstacles come with your job. Do you have what it takes to keep trying until you achieve your goal?

The biographies of great project managers reflect a familiar subject: overcoming adversity to achieve success. It's hard to imagine those stories without the hardships.

I want to give you a personal example: Some time ago, my manager asked me to implement a project management methodology. I was a PMO manager, and the project managers under me were trained in the method, but not all applied it. They said they needed to be more busy managing their projects to implement it.

I established a "Methodology Q&As" day and organized a training session to demonstrate how it could add value to the organization, the client, and themselves.

Two years passed, with several failures along the way; the lack of discipline and management support was one of the failures. Although I delivered several PM Methodology training sessions, most people did not use it. They said, "My manager is not measuring me by using that methodology," other project managers said, "We don't see the value··, but I didn't quit. I explained the PM Methodology value to the management team using several methods (face-to-face meetings, upper management meetings, and internal Newsletters). In the end, 85 percent of the project managers had implemented the Methodology. The rest of the project managers did not follow the Methodology because they were always outside the office on the customer site and could not be trained.

I am aware that projects constantly present us with obstacles. Yet, while some project managers persevere against any obstacle, others seem ready to give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. Which are you?

First, rank your persistence on a scale of 1 to 10 in the following areas of your life:

1.  Health and wellness: How persistent are you in caring for your health?
2. Investments and wealth management: How stubborn are you in investing and managing your wealth?
3. Job/career achievement: Are you persistent in pursuing your job/career objectives?
4. Relationships: Do you think you're insisting more than once when looking to establish relationships?
5. Business opportunities: Are you using your persistence to generate or pursue business opportunities?

Are you happy with your responses? If not, here are a few ways to cultivate persistence:

1. Focus on the outcome or final objective, and this will encourage you to move forward and continue.

2. Seek encouragement from persistent people. Ask stubborn people to coach you and motivate you to develop your persistence.

3. Pursue the knowledge you need to achieve your goals or objectives. Achieving your goals and dreams requires increasing your knowledge, skills, and experience. It would be best if you were prepared never to give up.

4. Understand that foolishness and ignorance are different from persistence. To be persistent, you need to acquire more and more knowledge and skills and move forward in your professional development path.

5. Avoid shortcuts, ignore negative people, and do not fear criticism. Cultivating persistence takes time, and it is always a step-by-step process. Sometimes we have too many negative people around us, be focused on what people say good about you rather than on what they say wrong about you. Say, thank you to people who talk bad about you because they create an excellent opportunity for you to improve.

No matter your persistence, you're bound to fail now and then. The question is: Are you willing to regroup, revisit and revise your approach?

TODAY is a GOOD DAY to develop your PERSISTENCE!

Alfonso.bucero@abucero.com