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The will to face the challenge

The boss calls and tells him that the report he needs next week is due tomorrow. Your child has “forgotten” until now that he has an important homework project for tomorrow. You are forced to help them. These are just a couple of simple but fairly common challenges that most people face on a regular basis. They are external, so they are easy to recognize.

We have to understand that challenges are good for us. They help us grow (if you accept the challenge) as people and give us a higher threshold to stay calm under pressure. If we know that being challenged regularly is good for us, how do we make sure it’s happening?

The challenges don’t have to be great. It could be something as simple as not eating that little snack bar while on a diet, no matter how much it’s calling you. It’s doing your training regardless of how tired you are (unless you’re overtraining) and you don’t have the excuse that you’ll make it up the next day, because you won’t. It’s getting up an hour early every day and studying and practicing to rank in the top one percent of people in your industry.

There are a couple of keywords that correlate with rising to the challenge. One of those words is self discipline. The other is perseverance. Self-discipline is doing what is necessary, even when we really don’t want to. Perseverance is not giving up on doing what is necessary when everything seems to be going against us.

At what level do you possess these two qualities? They also happen to be great character traits. If you are known as the person who does what you say you are going to do, and you don’t stop until it’s done, people will notice. Having these two qualities is noticed very quickly by those who are above you, because they most likely have these qualities (part of the reason they are above you).

If you have a tendency to quickly “throw in the towel” when challenged, fear not. These two character traits can develop quite quickly. As I said at the beginning, small steps are just as important as big ones. Small steps can be putting your things where they belong (the same way you do with your kids) the moment you get home from work, a night out, a family event, or wherever you come from. Because things that do not take time to do, do not need time not to do.

Be responsible for your actions and have the self-discipline and perseverance to face all challenges, big and small.

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