The Hidden Power of Persistence and Focus

The idea here that dogged persistence isn't that you have to do the same thing forever the rest of your life. It doesn't mean you have to decide on one universal purpose and stick to that forever. What it means is consistent progress. And I think that's what's important. I really believe that your dogged persistence toward your dreams makes you a more disciplined and flexible person. Foreign dogged persistence. You know, so many times in our life we have a vision, a dream, a hope, an ambition, a big audacious, crazy goal and we move towards it. A couple days, a couple weeks, maybe in a couple months sometimes we can sustain that momentum and that focus quarter after quarter, year after year, until we manifest the thing, we shape it, we create it, we achieve that desire, we manifest that exact thing we wanted. Other times we keep that persistence going, keep momentum, keep progress. But you know what? It veers a little bit. We've got to react to this chaos, this uncertainty. We learn this new idea, we, we take this different little path over here and we emerge in a better place, still improved. Maybe not exactly where we desired to be, but with that dogged determinism of working forward every single day, we still end up in a fantastic place. That's the beauty of this thing called persistence. I love to always make sure if I say persistence, I put dogged in front of it. I mean hard, disciplined work. To be persistent at the thing that you want. Not to give up at the first no, the second no, the third, no, the fourth gate, the fifth door shutting in your face, but rather to continue momentum and pace towards the things that you desire. I think that's what I'd love to share with you about today. I'd like to tell you a story about this. I had this singular thing that I thought was very important to my personal brand as a writer and coach. Many, many years ago, there was a website domain name that I wanted, I thought would be good for the brand, I thought would be helpful to define myself. And I wanted that website and I reached out to the owners and just that process to find out who the heck owned. It took me probably two or three, I think weeks. Found out who it was, reached out to this person, didn't hear anything back and I basically reached out and said, hey, I'm interested in the domain name. Reached out again a couple weeks later, didn't hear anything back. Reached out again, nothing. Hear back. I changed my approach, I changed the what I said in the email. I made it more incentive based. I changed the email, I sent it from So I sent it from my personal email, my work email. I mean, I was trying everything, never heard anything back. I said, okay, well, I don't know, maybe they're getting it, they're just not interested right now. I double checked that that was the account owner registered for that domain name. And I said, well, I guess I'll just keep trying. So I opened up my calendar and I was using Google Calendar at the time and I just scheduled every single quarter to reach out to this person to try to acquire this domain name. Every quarter. Do you know I sent an email every quarter for six years before I finally got an email back that said, you know what, I am interested in talking about this now. And we set up a call and did the deal within a week. Now, had I not tried anymore, had I not scheduled it, a very different outcome could have happened. And I think it's fortunate that I continued with dogged persistence to make that happen. And it's just a simple idea. But so often we have a fleeting idea and we chase it for a little bit. Six years, every quarter until I got my domain name, brendan.com. now I think it's important to make sure I extend the examples beyond such a simple example. But I know that you have hopes and you have dreams and I know you try two or three, four times, but you know who wins? Those who try two or three or four or five years. And I think that's what's important. Years. There are many dreams that you have that aren't going to be accomplished in one month or two months. I said I wanted to be a great personal development writer as an example. I knew that would probably take me 10 or 12 books. I'm on number six and I still don't think I've gotten warmed up. I knew to be like a high level, high performance coach, it would probably take me six, seven years. I never thought I'll do it this year and I'm all set. I believe that skill development and mastery truly does take time. Anytime you read the great biographies of any great artist, you don't see an overnight success story. What you tend to see, especially if they're a legend, is an incredible dogged persistence in showing up again and again and again and again, practicing, practicing, practicing, learning, evolving, changing with the times, finding their groove. Every great artist was different at certain ages. We study, quote, unquote, periods of their life, periods of their work, because people shift and change. So the idea here that dogged persistence isn't that you have to do the same thing forever. The rest of your life. It doesn't mean you have to decide on one universal purpose and stick to that forever. What it means is consistent progress. And I think that's what's important. I love to say a couple things will really make the difference in people's lives. Number one, know what you want. At least know what you want now, next week, the month after. Sometimes it's, you know what I need to survive this period of my life, Brendan, you don't understand. I'm just in survival mode. And I go, I get it. Sometimes you say, okay, no, what it is. I want to achieve this financial outcome in this year or next year. Sometimes you say, no, no, no, I'm on a five year horizon, Brendan. I want to do these 10 or 12 different things, okay? Every single week you start with that thing. You set up your deadlines, you remind yourself and you move forward. Progress. Sometimes you're going to have a crappy week, you're going to get right back on being doggedly persistent the next week. I think it's important for any persons who are in sales. You know, I have a whole inbox of literally hundreds of people who just pitch me week after week after week after week after week, hoping one day I'll break. And on some of them, I do at some point, oh yeah, I do need that. And there they are, been there the whole time, supporting, cheering on, adding value, offering to take questions. I really believe that your dogged persistence toward your dreams makes you a more disciplined and flexible person. Now, most people don't see those two things going disciplined and flexible. But if you doggedly persist at something for a really long time, you're forced to try new modalities, new ways of being, new attempts. It's ironic that our culture is so myopic and short term thinking that they really believe dogged persistence or disciplined actions have to be the exact same repetitive thing. They can't see that really dogged persistence over a long period of time actually looks like devotion and flexibility being adaptable even as you are marching towards something. If you have a long horizon and you see that thing way out in the distance, you, you might just have to change your direction several times to get there. Sometimes based on the weather, sometimes based on the geography. Well, the same thing isn't true in life. The crises, difficulties, obstacles, challenges, relationships that you have, it's okay that those knock you off course sometimes. The trick is to keep envisioning that future to every single day take a few moments to connect with what is that future you want, what's that desire? What's that goal? And then to ask the simplest things, what are three things today I can do to move forward towards that? And let me do those three things before I check my Instagram. Let me do those three things before I do something trite or trivial or drama laden. No, instead, let me focus on those three things today, even if I don't complete them because they're big items that I just have to keep chipping away at. Let me do those three things this day or this week. That again, is the power of setting up your Friday finishers every single week. On Sunday or Monday, whenever you set your weekly goals, you just decide what will happen by the end of Friday at 5pm your local time. And if you keep chipping it away at a major project month over month over month, that persistence changes everything. But of course, what we really celebrate persistence for is persistence in the face of judgment, persistence in the face of rejection. And we should celebrate those things because when you go for something and someone says no, they judge you. Well, you're an idiot. You don't know what you're doing. You are just starting. You're too young, you're too this, you're not enough of that. It's very easy to get down on yourself, to become discouraged and to let that self doubt stop you versus understanding either. Okay, that's just not the right person I need to be talking to or did that person give me any intel, any information that could help me develop or build a new skill so that I am that person or I do have that capability. I remember somebody having seen a speech of mine come up to me afterwards with a host of another event and kind of gave me some feedback in front of this other host host saying that I wasn't ready for a bigger stage, saying, you know, good job Brendan, kind of like a pat on the back, you know, nice effort, but you're really not ready for the prime time. You're not really ready for this person's event yet and said that. And at the time I remember feeling incredibly embarrassed that this was being said in front of another person and simultaneously angry. You ever had those two mix before? You're embarrassed and angry at the same time. It's an awful feeling, but that's where I was. And I remember my face feeling like it went flush red of both embarrassment and anger at the same time. And luckily I've formed the response of not responding too soon, not overreacting. So I felt the emotion come up, I breathed through it. I ultimately left the Conversation, went for a walk in the hallway, and the first thing I said, okay, my goal is the bigger stage. I know I can have that impact. I will be doggedly persistent to it. But this person just said, I'm not ready. Are they right? And I thought, well, I don't know. Until I actually make the attempt and I get on stage and I fail at it. They could be right or they could be wrong. But because they had that concern, let me do this, let me go get a coach, let me keep developing myself, let me keep practicing. But I didn't stop trying to get on the stage just because this person said I was not ready. Instead, I skilled up. That's really the essence of long term personal development. When we say dogged persistence, it means we keep developing ourselves even as we're trying new things, even as we're adapting, even as we're being flexible, even as we're chasing the exact same goals month after month, year after year. Even if we're being completely consistent, we're developing ourselves the entire time so that when our shot comes, or the crisis demands of it, or the moment is there, we're actually more prepared. We didn't just doggedly persist in the same state of being. No, we persisted and focused on becoming. We became better as we sought perhaps the exact same goal. We didn't stop, we didn't take their rejection as a forever, no, we didn't take that embarrassment or that failure as a stop, never try again. What we did is we pursued the goal with the same dogged determinism, but at the same time, we developed ourselves. And this is why I always celebrate you doing this work. Because no matter what you are faced with today, if you keep growing, you stick to your personal development, develop yourself, and still go after those goals week after week, month after month, year after year. This is where uncommon breakthrough successes happen. It looks like it just happened one day for somebody, but you don't see the behind the scenes of all those times that they kept trying. I remember one day, gosh, this is years ago now. I walked out in one of my first arenas. And I mean, these are like stadiums. Like, I walked out and I was the keynote for 30,000 people. And if you know my story, I've spoken at most of the major arenas, auditoriums and stadiums in the U.S. i've done a worldwide tour. I've, I've had the blessing of speaking to a lot of people in person as the keynote or the marquee. And in that experience, I remember that first one walking out there And I felt all the nerves. I wasn't sure if I was going to do great. I didn't walk out there trying to pump myself up and tell me I'm the best in the world, and here I am, I've arrived. I literally walked out on that stage and I remember thinking to myself, I'm going to learn a lot in this next hour. Let's have some fun. And I did. And I got booked again and again and again and again. And I've been blessed to become probably in the personal development world, you know, top five paid speakers over the course of my career. And that has been something that I don't think I would have ever achieved if that time I was embarrassed or angry because the truth was I wasn't good or wasn't ready enough. But I kept chasing the same goal that I had determined for myself and developed myself at the same time. I know you must have thousands of these little stories in your life. When someone made fun of you and you either chose to stop or keep going. Literally thousands. They're all micro decisions, weren't they? Every single time you stopped a passion because someone made fun of you, there was a choice there. Or every time you kept going towards a passion, even if they made fun of you, there was a choice there. Every time you finish your Friday and you decide that you either did what you said you were going to do or you didn't, there are choices there. You have big goals. Do you revisit them? Are you being persistent towards them? Are you growing as you're going to? I hope you are. And so be doggedly persistent in your personal development. Every area of my life, I've always been doggedly persistent to improve. Not be perfect in, not be awesome in, not be completely the best ever in. Just keep improving it, just keep paying attention to it, keep persisting even when it's hard. I know you can do that.