Is Persistence Helping Or Hurting You?

This is my t-shirt drawer. I actually have 2 t-shirt drawers, this is the neat one. Pretty scary right?!

Saturday I was digging away, looking for a specific tank top for yoga class. Gary was laughing about what a spazz I am and questioning whether the shirt was even in there. (He is very neat and organized.) I triumphantly pulled it out, and said: “aha, persistence pays off.” Then I instantly had a second thought: “organize your stuff.”

I realized how often we assume that persistence is a good thing, when sometimes it isn’t.

I’m a big fan of persistence, it’s one of my core values, so I don’t mean to knock it here. But, just like everything, there is a time and a place for it.

Persistence is helpful when:

• Reaching out to clients that you haven’t heard from in a while
• You are determined to grow your business
• Making phone calls, sending note cards and previewing, even when you don’t want to

• Persisting in doing something that isn’t working because you resist change.
• Working every night until 2am because you don’t have systems in place. While it’s great that you are persistent in getting it all done, it doesn’t serve you.

Persisting in spinning your wheels on things over and over again burns time and wastes energy. It’s awesome that I was willing to spend the 3 minutes digging to find the shirt, but wouldn’t it be better if everything was neatly folded and I could find it in 3 seconds?

It also traps you into an illusion of being busier than you are and blocks you from receiving more because you don’t feel that you have the capacity to handle it.

There is a point where your business reaches critical mass and persistence in doing things the way you always have can also lead to burn out.

At that point, systems and organization have to kick in. You need to shift your mindset from “I’ll just keep throwing time at this” to, “there has to be a way to systematize this to save me time.” If you don’t, it screws up your momentum.

 Where are you being persistent in something that no longer serves you?

Spotting it yourself can be tricky. Changing it by yourself can be almost impossible. This is one of the key areas where it is helpful to have a coach or mentor walk you through it. As Einstein said:

“You can’t fix a problem with the same mind that created it.”

This has nothing to do with how smart you are, and everything to do with you only know what you know. It takes an outside person to see different solutions and to hold your hand when things get uncomfortable. Because change, even for the better, is uncomfortable.

If you are ready to rejuvenate your business for growth as well as fun (remember it’s about a life well lived) then I invite you to join us tomorrow for the start of the Mindset ~ Marketing ~ Momentum mentorship group.

Click here for details and to get going.