To become competent in any new endeavor, you may need to invest a significant amount of time, often many years. It’s imperative that you give yourself sufficient time to build your effectiveness. Your mind needs to gain enough experience to make accurate predictions. If you quit too early, you’ll never complete the shift from novice to expert, and the expert level is where most of the rewards are found.
When you hear someone say that success is easy, run the other way as fast as you can because you’re about to hear a sales pitch for another get-rich-quick scam. The honest truth is that it’s very difficult—nearly impossible—to succeed at something you’ve never done before. But that’s perfectly okay. Understand that failure and success are not opposites. Failure is an unavoidable part of success. When you fail, it means you’re taking action, so you’re making mistakes and educating yourself. Success happens naturally once you finally learn how to take the correct actions.
Be patient with yourself as you work through this failure period. If you’re pursuing a goal you really want, the kind that practically brings you to tears when you think about it because you connect with it so deeply, then you have to stick with it. No matter how hard it gets, don’t give up.
Don’t pressure yourself to achieve massive success the first time out. Just do the best you can. At first, your best may be barely one notch above complete idiot—if you’re lucky. Eventually you’ll gain some basic competency. And farther down the road, people will call you an expert—an expert being a person who’s failed enough to succeed.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “Press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. —Calvin Coolidge
If you’re clear about what you want, settle for nothing less. Accept that success will take time, perhaps much longer than you’d like. Rid yourself of the fast and easy, something-for-nothing mind-set. Keep your head down, work hard, and know that your efforts will eventually pay off, as long as you keep learning and growing.
* Source: Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina