In this episode, we discuss how ambition is important but it’s persistence that makes the difference in life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about persistence. There is a great quote by Bill Bradly that says, “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle that will get you there.” Without persistence, none of your goals will become a reality, but you do need ambition first though.
Why would you do anything if you didn’t have the ambition to get something greater in your life? Why go to school, why take a job, and why find any relationships. All these things require us to believe that we can have something better for ourselves but it might not come as easily as we want it to. That’s where persistence kicks in. This an important characteristic to have because when there is an obstacle or setback, your persistence will help you overcome those things.
It can be really easy to quit something and I know I wanted to quit many things, but luckily for me, I have people to support me. I remember I wanted to quit my last firm many times but I don’t think I was ready to leave yet, and thankfully I didn’t quit the first time because I learned a lot of valuable things as a financial advisor and now as I’m working on creating my own financial planning firm, I’m using a lot of the lessons to keep going and the best lesson is persistence.
I guess what gives me persistence is my ambition. I keep thinking about the future I’m going to have by continuing down the path of running a business and that future is much better than the present I currently have. I’m still having fun and enjoying my journey now, but I’m excited about what will happen once I reach the next phase of my life.
I guess the same thing happened to me and school. In high school, I knew I wanted to get a job that paid a great salary so I wouldn’t have to worry about my personal finances and this is why I worked so hard at school and went through the Marines. When it was time to do the homework versus watching television or indulging in some other distraction, I was able to focus on my school and complete the work. When it was time to say no to the distraction and to force myself to go to school after work, it was all worth it to me because of my ambition. The ambition made the persistence easier to deal with.
I guess what makes persistence easier for me is that I like to break things down in actionable tasks that I can do and then I reward myself for doing that thing. Right now I’m in school studying for my MBA and I’m running this grow with joe business at the same time, so I have a lot of my plate right now. Plus I’m trying to move to Latin America in January. Then there is also family obligations that I’m trying to make happen before I go. I just need to be disciplined with my time and work on things that actually matter.
I like to look at my day the next day and formulate an action plan. I will time block my schedule with things that I have to do and I make sure the things I’m doing are going to give me the most value for my time. I don’t need to constantly check price tickets to Colombia and I don’t need to check my e-mail every 15 minutes. I need to write blog posts, record and produce podcast episodes, and I need to follow-up with prospective clients. Doing these can be painful, especially doing a podcast because it takes a lot of work to do one episode but I do it because it’s great practice and I enjoy it. At first, it was a pain but with enough persistence, I learned to enjoy and now I don’t need to use as much willpower to help me get through the thing.
Another thing that helps me with persistence is temptation bundling. When I write a blog post, I listen to some background music. I usually listen to some deep house music because there are not a lot of vocals to follow and the beat is at the right place for me to getting the writing flow. So by doing something that I enjoy with the thing that I don’t want to do, makes getting through the task easier.
I also tell myself that when I finish writing something that I’m going to reward myself with a walk and listen to a podcast. I can’t listen to a podcast and right at the same time because those are two deep thinking tasks and I just can’t focus on both and I love listening to podcasts so this is a good reward because I’m getting exercise in by walking and I’m also learning at the same time. I usually listen to podcasts while I’m cleaning because I love to learn and doing something else while listening to a podcast just makes me feel that more productive.
For another thing about persistence, I think it is a skill that you build up. Don’t go from 0 to 100 in an hour, take a month to build yourself up there. Every day should be 3 to 5 percent harder than the previous time. This ensures that you’re challenging yourself but you’re not putting unrealistic expectations on yourself. If you do this for two years, then you’ll be an amazing person. Even if you just get one percent better every day for 365 days, you don’t improve by 365 percent, you improve by over 3700 percent, which means your 37 times better than how you started the year.
It would be almost impossible to become 37 times better in a month, but with enough persistence by doing the work every single day, you’re going to blow past a lot of people in terms of your capabilities. Most people will quit at some time along the 365 days, but if you make it, then you’ll get to enjoy all the benefits of being 37 times better than 10 times better.
Persistence also only really matters if you’re persisting on the right things. I thought I wanted to become a physical therapist one day after going through physical therapy in high school after tearing my ACL, but after going through physical therapy for my back in my mid-20s, I realized that I didn’t really want to become a physical therapist anymore. So I pivoted away from physical therapist and I know I’m working much harder on becoming a financial planner now than I would have ever done as a physical therapist. I know I would have quit at some time becoming a physical therapist but I’m glad I found out sooner than later.
It takes wisdom to figure out which things you should persist on and which things you shouldn’t persist on and you’ll get that wisdom from experiences and from learning from bright minds. There is nothing worse in life than persisting on the wrong things and your ambition should be able to direct you in the right direction. If you’re not sure what direction you should go in, I would recommend taking Strength Finders and see what are your best characteristics and then from there, see what type of jobs you do best in. I know what I need to do for my life and where I should persist, do you?
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, persistence matters in life. It’s going to serve as the fuel to help you reach your goals but you also want to make sure you’re heading in the right direction as well, so your ambition will let you know which things are worth persisting on. Plus you only have one life to live, so might as well and see how far you can make it in life on the things you enjoy doing in life. Once you start moving the right direction and reach your landmarks, you’ll realize that all the work was worth it. Life is a journey, so you might as well enjoy the work your doing and persist on the right things.
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode.
Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
