Transformational Income: Don't Give Up

If you have ever dieted unsuccessfully, you will know that your lack of persistence reveals itself in late night snacking, cheating, scale avoidance, and tight clothes.

If you have been unsuccessful at maintaining an exercise regimen, your lack of persistence is evidenced in continued weakness, shortness of breath, and avoidance of those activities that demand strength or stamina.

If you have been unsuccessful in the making money, your lack of success may seem equally obvious to you and it seems to speak for itself. But there are often deeper causes and one of these is the lack of persistence.

Study this list of the symptoms of lack of persistence carefully and face yourself squarely IF YOU REALLY WISH TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF DOING.

1. Failure to recognize and to clearly define exactly what you want

2. Procrastination, with or without cause and usually backed up with a formidable array of alibis and excuses

3. Lack of interest or motivation in acquiring the knowledge needed to be successful

4. Indecision, the tendency to let circumstances make the decision for you (This is also backed by alibis and blaming circumstances.)

5. The habit of relying on alibis and excuses instead of coming up with definite plans for the solutions of problems

6. Self-satisfaction. This may seem contradictory; why would you be worrying about dieting, exercising, or making money if you were self-satisfied? Sometimes we allow ourselves to be “crowded” into these actions by the expectations of others. You may be perfectly happy with your yourself overweight, flabby, and low on cash. If this is the case, your attempts to lose weight, exercise, or make money are doomed to failure

7. Indifference, usually reflected in your readiness to compromise rather than meet opposition and overcome it

8. The habit of blaming others for your mistakes and of accepting unfavorable circumstances as being unavoidable. In fact, if no unfavorable circumstances present themselves, you may go out of your way to find them so that you will have an excuse

9. WEAKNESS OF DESIRE, due to lack of sufficient MOTIVATION. You just don’t want it badly enough to do what is necessary to succeed

10. Willingness, even eagerness, to quit at the first sign of defeat (This is most obvious in terms of dieting – you cheat once, or make a mistake one, and give up altogether rather than determining that you will do better – but the same dynamic is often at work in your efforts to make money

11. Lack of ORGANIZED PLANS, placed in writing so that they may be analyzed and tweaked if necessary (though you must resist the temptation to continuing tweaking your plans rather than working them)

12. The habit of neglecting to move on ideas, or to grasp opportunity when it presents itself

13. WISHING instead of WILLING

14. The habit of compromising with the status quo instead of aiming at something better, whether it be an ideal weight, a trim, muscular body, or a healthy bank account and doing the work require to make it yours

15.Searching for all the short-cuts, trying to get what you want without GIVING in return. This is often reflected in the habit of gambling (usually when you can least afford to) or trying to drive “sharp” bargains

16.FEAR OF CRITICISM. Sometimes we fail to make plans and put them into action because we are afraid that others will make fun of us, or criticize us, for wanting something, anything, better than what we already have

In his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, who grew up in poverty, tells of his own mental processes when Andrew Carnegie suggested to him that he devote twenty years to the organization of a philosophy of individual achievement:

"As quick as a flash, my mind began to to create alibis and excuses, all of them traceable to the inherent FEAR OF CRITICISM. Something inside of me said, ‘You can’t do it – the job is too big, and requires too much time – what will your relatives think of you?–how will you earn a living?–no one has ever organized a philosophy of success, what right have you to believe you can do it?–who are you, anyway, to aim so high?–remember your humble birth–what do you know about philosophy–people will thing you are crazy–(and they did)–why hasn’t some other person done this before now?…

I had a fine opportunity, then and there, to kill off ambition before it gained control of me. Later in life, after having ananlyzed thousands of people, I discovered that MOST IDEAS ARE STILL-BORN, AND NEED THE BREATH OF LIFE INJECTED INTO THEM THROUGH DEFINITE PLANS OF IMMEDIATE (and I would add, sustained) ACTION."