Perseverance- A Secret to Success

Perseverance - to persist in pursuing something in spite of obstacles or opposition
-Webster’s Dictionary

A Secret of Success

We'd like to think that perseverance has everything to do with it. Yet in saying this, we still haven't helped you. If you were lucky enough to be part of a creative community where everyone around consistently succeeded in creating and sharing wonderful things in the world, then you would most likely gain the traits of those around you. This is why stimulus.com was created, to give you the advantage of being with a community that shares its secrets with you.

If someone told you that anything could be accomplished by just sticking with it, you'd probably agree, yet not feel any better about experiencing this success yourself. What we are going to teach you here, is a secret to perseverance.

Now people who are called "naturally talented" are merely people that gained an interest in a particular skill early in life. There is rarely anything genetically special about them. Its just that when someone learns how to do something at an early age, they tend to excel at that talent in comparison to others. Later in life when they compare their skills with others, they feel a confidence that few around them have.

When you create something, you are guaranteed to overcome obstacles. If you have a lot of experience in the area where you are creating things, then the obstacles are easy to overcome, and thus you are known to be "talented" at that skill. Again, there is nothing special about this. It is just the result of experience.


When we say "perseverance," we mean the ability to finish what you start. Take a look at the graph to the right, it illustrates the common experience of completing a complex project.

Notice that the difficulty constantly increases as the project continues. Just before the first level of success is accomplished, the difficulty level does two things:

Peaks
Levels Off

This brings us to the secret: You always know when you are about to succeed, because the difficulty level will peak to a nearly unbearable level, and then sustain. Typically people in creative environments look for this pattern over and over again. When they feel the difficulty leveling off, their second wind comes crashing in to fuel the fire of success. Sadly, most people interpret this sustained level of difficulty as an impossible barrier and a sign of when to quit, never knowing that they were only moments from their destiny.

How can this apply to your life?

Never quit, and when you think you just can't bare to continue, you are most likely about to accomplish success. Here are a few examples that always follow this rule:

Learning an instrument
Painting and illustrating
Writing stories and music
Building things

As with any skill, the more successes you have, the easier success comes, fewer obstacles get in your way. Even a large collection of finished failures can give you the confidence required to continue to succeed. Don't rely on others to support you. If this happens, it is a wonderful thing, however. Without your vision being successfully completed, the chances of someone understanding what you're attempting is minimal at best.

Good luck, and see you at the top.