Not only is it important that you embrace challenge and try to get everything you can out of it, but it is perhaps of equal importance that all challenges are met with unrelenting force until they are overcome.
For 99% of people on planet earth, the word “tenacity” means “I’ll try for a bit, but I’m not guaranteeing anything.” They will see an obstacle in their path and will either a) avoid it altogether or b) try to surmount it with lackluster effort for a dismal amount of time. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood people learn that it is okay, or even wise, to give up if faced with too big of a challenge or if they aren’t making progress fast enough. What happened to the kid who would not stop until they finally rode that bicycle despite falling time and time again? For most people on this planet, true tenacity – that is, fighting until you either make it or drop dead — is only seen when a car needs to be lifted off of a loved one. Otherwise, giving up is always an option. How many successful people in the world do you know whose definition of tenacity is “I’ll give it a shot”?
Let’s take a look at Steve Jobs for a minute. His goal in life was to “make a ding in the universe”, as he put it. Despite being one of the founding members of Apple, he was at one point fired and essentially banished from the company for several years. During those years he started a company called NeXT and he was bound and determined to make this new company as prolific as Apple. Eventually Apple grew desperate, rehired him as CEO, and also bought out NeXT. Another several years later Apple became again one of the dominating forces in the tech industry.
The moral is thus: Steve Jobs refused to lose. Even when forced to start from scratch he would not give up on his life goal of dinging the universe. He believed in it and he believed he was the one who could pull it off! Did he know for a fact that he would eventually make Apple one of the most profitable tech companies on earth? Not at all, but he believed he could. He acted with years of persistence on nothing but faith. No guarantee of anything, just a belief that he could do it. Simply put, he had a vision and would not stop working until that which was in his head became reality. And Steve isn’t alone in his thinking. Nearly every person who has achieved massive success thinks this very same way.
Making the shift
Jesus once said that if one has faith they can move entire mountains. A willingness to act with tenacity and veracity is nothing more than actualizing that same faith. It is through moving the mountains that we demonstrate belief in our vision.
Jedi Master Yoda put it nicely, “Do or do not, there is no try.” So to go from “trying” to “doing”, henceforth, whenever you encounter an obstacle in your life or in your business – regardless of its magnitude – decide up front if you are willing to address it. If you are indeed willing to address it, you then must take massive action to see it through. The only options for you at that point are either to succeed or die trying. The job must get done and the challenge must be surmounted. Otherwise, do not act at all. Either give the challenge your all or don’t give it the time of day. Anything else should be viewed as unacceptable.
Sure, I understand that shifting this mindset so radically so quickly isn’t going to come naturally, so start with the little things. It could be as simple as “I am going to go to the gym two days this week.” Once you’ve established your goal, you are to let nothing stop you, come hell or high water. You must believe fully in your capability to commit to just this one thing and follow through on it no matter what.
Once you’ve built up your track record of fully committing your very soul to a given task (or several), the belief you will have in yourself and what you can do will be astoundingly magnified. Eventually you will come to believe that old trope you heard from your parents: “You can do anything if you put your mind to it.” But first it has to start from little commitments that you keep consistently. Success is always “do or die.”
Tyler Bennett is a writer, entrepreneur, and graduate student in mathematics who has a passion for helping students get the most out of their education and their lives as a whole. He has authored several books including The Art of Habit Building and The College Handbook They Never Gave You under the pen name Dan Stevens, and is the primary writer for the website TheCollegeSuccessGuide.net . Tyler is married and has four cats.