Jill at GoalGuru.com writes:

I agree 100% Chris, the biggest gains and growth come from doing one more than you think you can. And that point is often the most challenging and uncomfortable. I love it when my personal trainer says “one more” because I know I’m about to grow that muscle and expand it’s current capacity. It helps to have a coach or buddy to remind you to stretch yourself.

Same principle applies to business and all other life areas.

Live Your Dreams,

Jill Koenig

Author, Coach and Motivational Speaker

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Hope Wilbanks writes:

Thanks for the motivational kick in the rear. ;)

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Ramon Greenwood writes:

Chris, You hit the nail squarely on the head. I couldn’t agree more. I have written on the subject of perseverance in my newsletter, The Career Accelerator, under a subject line Winners Keep On Keeping On.

Here’s an overview of that newsletter:

Ted Turner, world-class sailor and founder of the CNN television network, explains his success by saying:

“The secret of my success is that I never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”

In another age President Calvin Coolidge declared: “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Winston Churchill said he overcame a multitude of defeats in his career by living out his credo of “Never, never, never, never give up.”

Polybius, a Greek historian, wrote, “Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous effort than before.”

But common sense teaches that it is very important to understand the difference between persistence and pigheadedness.

Persistence is an act of both logic and faith. It means making sure the goal is worth the cost and believing that it is possible to reach it by making the best effort plus a little more.

Pigheadedness, on the other hand, is to ignore reality and to continue to beat one’s head against a brick wall when the reward, even if it is won, is not worth the risk and effort.

Persistence means to set goals and reach them and then set more goals and reach them, recognizing that success is never finally achieved. Winners are always pursuing the next goal.

Chris, I hope this adds to the discussion.

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Christina Sponias writes:

Thank you Chris for the encouraging words!
Thank you Ramon for your brilliant analysis of the meaning of perseverance!

I’ve seeing in practice how perseverance works because I never give up.
This is how I could do many things impossible to be done.
Perseverance needs resistance to attacks, offences and subestimation.
One has to truly believe he or she is going to succeed and continue working, without interruption.

By the way, I remember that in the last Olympic Games here in Athens the girl that won in certain race suddenly started to run faster than the others only in the last minutes, surpassing everyone, while she was not near the first line. It seems that she was keeping the best for the end. Her victory surprised everyone! I don’t remember her name!

It fits with what my half compatriot Polybius said: ‚¬“Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous effort than before.‚¬

This is really a very wise observation!

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Lance Winslow writes:

Excellent commentary here today.

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Rajkumar Kanagasingam writes:

Hi Friends,

I always remembered the Henry Ford’s words – “Thinking always of trying to do more brings a state of mind in which nothing seems impossible” and recently achieved this: http://books.google.com/books?id=MrBi0ghiZN0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=german+memories+in+asia

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Jeff Herring - The Article Guy writes:

One more makes all the difference

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Vern writes:

Hi Chris,

This is really awesome.
Next time round I’ll up my article writing
by 1 more at the end of the week
special for my rants.

Sometimes, the routine
just makes me a little
impatient. Besides, who
knew article writing would
be so much “giving out”
incorporated from ones
life experiences and ideas.

By the way, I feel like my
fingers are pretty conditioned
to tapping away at the keyboard now.

I guess thats why would happen
when you lay down a 90 day plan
for any single writing strategy . LOL!

Cheers,
Vern

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Lynne Lee writes:

“what would you do if you knew you could not fail? What would you do if you knew your investment in every action counted or pulled you closer to your goals?”

Thank you for reminding me that success is waitng for those who dare to take action and that massive action will bring rewards.

Lynne Lee

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Alyssa Johnson writes:

What perfect timing!

I’ve been feeling as if my efforts are for not lately. Thank you to all who contributed this one. You’ve encouraged me to keep my eyes on prize and run the good race.

Best wishes to all of us!

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lily writes:

Thank you for giving there encouraging words. I am in trouble now to date online. I have registered at http://www.horsedate.com for a period time and I have met many people there, including my friends in real life. I also meet some boys who I am interested in, but untill now I have not success.I planned to give up several days before, but now I do not give it up any more. There are so many people there and many are my ideal match. I have chance to date one. Thanks for giving me courage to continue my way. Thanks very much

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Laurel Barnet writes:

There are often discouraging times when it is hard to sit down and write one more article. At those times, it is helpful to hear someone saying, “Just one more article.” You know that eventually one more article will lead to one more and then one more. Before your know it, you have written a lot more articles.

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Jan Verhoeff writes:

One more post… LOL

I love these motivational speeches you give Chris. They’re right there pushing me to go one more round.

Jan Verhoeff

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Tom Schaber writes:

Yours was a short article but long on wisdom. One of my better sales managers mentioned to me that the majority of “extra calls” turn into sales. I don’t know whether he was just trying to motivate me or whether he really tracked this stuff.

Regardless, it does work. Doing one extra of anything puts you into a positive frame of mind, which enables the outcome to be positive.

t schaber

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Robert Ritter writes:

I am reminded of the story of the young man who bought a parcel of land in gold country because he had found a large chunk of gold. He began in earnest and dug, and dug and dug. He abandoned the idea and sold the parcel for $5.00 The new owner continued to dig and struck the Mother Load in 5 feet. How do you know you are not 5 feet from reaching pay dirt? Persistence is the one attribute that all successful people share.

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