When most people start a project, they believe they will stick to it until the end and always think of the success of this project without including the struggle that goes into it. But along the way, they start doubting themselves and most of the time they give up before finishing the project. But don’t worry, persistence can be learned like anything else. indeed, if there is something hard to achieve, you should train yourself to push harder and be patient to succeed the project. Here are a few project examples that you could be trying to achieve: losing 5kg, writing once a week a blog post, contacting 20 people before the end of the month… But it can be a little bigger. For example, create a blog, create a new algorithm that will overtake google’s technology.

Project Failure Example

To begin with, let’s start with a failing project example that we all face at some point in our life or even sometimes in our daily basis. If you are with people that tend to give up, or if you tend to give up, this is in my experience, how the project may end up.

1st stage: excitement

The first month, everyone is excited because something different is about to start and new people may be involved. Everything seems wonderful and everyone is happy to work together. For some reasons, people are always happy when they start something new. They try to show their motivation and assure you that they are going to stay until the project finishes.

2nd stage: something a little difficult occur at an unexpected time

A simple problem occurs, what they thought was easy to do, end up being more difficult. Thus, what they were planning to build is now taking them longer because they will have to fix this problem to continue the project.

OR

The project is simply not exciting anymore, people go back to their old bad habits and stop as they do not want to spend the time to work on the project, they just want the glory and not the struggle. So they go back to watching TV or do their everyday occupation and tell the other members of the group that they are busy and cannot work on the project.

3rd stage: give up or make it

Some decide to stop and go back to their previous habits. Only the ones that want to see the project finish stay. Of course, the ones that stay are the ones that are more likely to persevere and achieve the project.

How to never give up

Choose what you want

Before even starting, you should think if what you want to do match with what you are currently doing. If someone offers you an opportunity in a restaurant such as a job, a business opportunity… but the food industry does not interest you, It is better to refuse it unless you really need it. It is better to say no, keep looking and eventually when you find what you can, accept it.

Create Habits

Habits are, in my opinion, the best way to learn how to never give up. The key is to keep the right habits and transform your bad habits into the good ones. Habits are part of our everyday life, as soon as we were born we started creating habits. They help us to save energy so that we do not use our brain as much. That is why they are so hard to change because it requires your brain to work hard before to change habits. But after pushing yourself for a few months, the new habits starts to kick in. If you need extra information about habits, here is a book summary of The power of habits.

Manage your time

Time management helps to control your life and daily tasks. It guides and pushes you to be more strict with yourself. Moreover, it gives you the possibility to review your time and see which task you spent too much time on. However, managing time does not mean work as much as possible and never go out with your friends. It simply means that you can control your time to do the right things in order to create a balanced lifestyle.

No burnout

Working really hard every day, without having any break, and for a long time, may not be healthy. Moreover, if you persist, you may get a burnout. Burnout is the last thing we want to get as it requires you to take a much longer break than expected. It may take you at least a month to recover from it. If you:

• are physically and emotionally exhausted
• have the lack of accomplishment
• have negative emotions

Take some time off and make sure you are stress-free before you start working again.

Include outside activities

Working hard cannot last for a long time, if you are thinking to never give up, you need to balance your life with enjoyment, not only work. We, human, are able to work long hours but we need to rest in order to be more efficient. working too many hours will lower our efficiency. Thus, it is important to go out with friends, go to the gym and if possible get 1 day off a week to stay with your family.

No excuses

There is always a reason why the project did not work. The key is to identify the problems and pivot when you are going the wrong way. You need to find out what went wrong, then, learn from your mistake and continue or try again. External factors may affect the project but no matter what, it is your responsibility to handle those problems. At the end of the day, you can only blame yourself and no one else if the project fails.

Stay focused

In order to never give up and finish a project,  we need to stay focused. It is clearly impossible to achieve something without focus. Thus, when you decide to manage your time, you need to stick to it. If you decide to work for 4 hours but you are already watching TV after 1 hour of work, you have a lower chance of achieving your goals. Do not lie to yourself if you have not worked efficiently and instead, find a way to stay focused, even when it is hard.

Face and Walk Through Your Fears

Sometimes, during the accomplishment of a project, you will need to do things that you have never done or that you are scared of doing. You may ask people to judge what you have done, or you may need to speak in public in front of 30 people. Whatever it is, if the project requires you to do it, so, you will have to if you want to make it.

In conclusion, most people tend to give up too soon. They are excited to start the project but get disturbed easily when the first problem comes up. Only a few people stick to their plan and persist until they make it. Persistence can be taught but it requires lots of practice. If you know what you want, if you create habits,  if you manage efficiently your time, if you blame yourself first before giving excuses, if you stay focused, and if you face and walk through your fears, you have all the chances to achieve all your goals.

focus, Habits, persistence, Project

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