When you ask highly successful people to name the single most important quality required to become successful most of them will say it is persistence. If you also examine people who are habitual failures your will find persistence to be the quality that they are most lacking.

Most people are far too short on persistence. The average time people persist with learning a musical instrument, or a foreign language or with a fitness program or any other form of self improvement, is less than six weeks.

Let's be serious here. Do you really think that a person is likely to master a musical instrument or foreign language in six weeks? Of course not! Likewise if is totally unrealistic to expect to become fully fit or master any form of self improvement in just six weeks.

If you tap into the right resources then you can learn the basic principles and strategies for success in most areas in three to four weeks but then you have to persist with using those strategies over and over for long enough to allow their full benefits to flow to you.

During that time you will experience rewards and you will experience setbacks, you will experience moments of joy and moments of disappointment but regardless of what you experience and how often you experience it success will go to the person who has the iron willed persistence required to reap the true potential from his goals.

Let's look at a few things that can help you develop that level of persistence.

#1. Keep one eye firmly focused on the true benefits that you are trying to achieve.

Most people set their goals around a particular thing or event. They may have a goal to buy a certain car, or house, or earn a certain income or take a particular holiday and so on. However it is not really the "thing" that makes us happy it is the emotional benefit that we get through that particular thing.

For example one person might want a particular sports car for the exhilaration they will feel while they are driving it. Another person may want the same car for the sense of status that they feel it can provide them. Yet another person may want that same car as a symbol of success and for the feeling of personal fulfillment that they will get from knowing that they set and achieved the goal.

The three different emotional benefits are the real fuel that will help each of those three different people muster the persistence that they need in order to succeed.

#2. Keep the other eye focused on the present moment and learn to be fully present inside whatever you are doing.

Focusing on the desired benefits alone will not bring your goal into reality. You have to take the necessary actions, and that requires persistence. If you develop the habit of being fully present mentally and emotionally when you are taking those actions then you will develop a great sense of satisfaction from what you are doing and that will help you persist over time for long enough to realize your objective.

#3. Develop the habit of appreciating the progress you are making.

It is easy to become distracted by how far you have still got to go and this can become so discouraging that it will destroy all forms of persistence. If on the other hand you develop the habit of really appreciating each and every step forward and the accumulated progress you have made then that will make it easier to persist with your goal directed activity and keep you on track for however long it takes.

Remember that persistence is the key to greatness and through the three simple habits outlined above you can develop the iron willed persistence required to achieve whatever level of success you set your heart on.

James Delrojo
www.riches.in5minutesperday.com