The Power of Persistence (Posted by Priya Deelchand)

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

“We told them so.”

“Crazy men and their crazy dreams.”

“It`s foolish to chase wild visions.”

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.

He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.

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Posted by Priya Deelchand

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Persistence – Your Key to Success by Priya Deelchand

Persistence – Your Key to Success

By Priya Deelchand

Do you really want to succeed in life? Is there a goal that you would like to achieve? Do you want to be happier, healthier or richer? One of the most important ingredients to achieve anything great in your life is persistence. Persistence has the power to transform desires into reality. John D. Rockefeller once said “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

Persistence separates extraordinary people from ordinary ones. You too can succeed and achieve great things in your life if you cultivate the habit of persisting. All things are possible if you persist. People who persevere, never accept defeat. They just keep moving forward in the direction of their goals.

One of the main reasons why goals remain unachieved and why most people are not successful is a lack of persistence. Initially you are very excited and highly motivated when you make the decision to achieve your new goal and you are determined to succeed. However once an obstacle, large or small, appears you most often allow that obstacle to discourage you from continuing to do what it takes to achieve your goal and succeed.

People who achieved excellence have encountered many obstacles while climbing the ladder to success. Such obstacles would have discouraged most ordinary people a long time back. These extraordinary people, however, refused to quit. They persisted until they succeeded. Thomas Edison is a very good example of the power of perseverance. When he was asked how he managed to persist in the face of continued failure, he answered, “I did not fail. I have just found 10,000 ways not to invent the light bulb.” Most people fail simply because they gave up too soon. If they had persisted, success would have been theirs.

You need to persist regardless of the obstacles you come across. You must keep telling yourself that as long as you keep trying, as long as you keep putting effort into doing what you need to do to achieve what you strongly desire, you will succeed. Always remember the wise words of Og Mandino who once said “I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult…. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”

If you persist, you will succeed over the person who has more money, more education or even more talents than you have. Calvin Coolidge was right when he said “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Persistence has incredible power. Take constant action in the direction of your goals and trust that the best outcome will always materialize. Never quit. Do not stop singing if you are not accepted at an audition, do not give up on that job you always wanted, do not stop striving to be the person you always wanted to be, do not give up your big dreams. Always remember that all great people started as ordinary people but had a dream and persisted and with a positive mental attitude achieved extraordinary success. If they persisted and succeeded, you can too! So begin to persist now and remember what Winston Churchill said “Never, never, never give up!”

Priya Deelchand is a Life and Business Coach and Founder of Success Strategies Consultants Ltd. She coaches and helps people worldwide in both English and French using Law of Attraction, EFT and other powerful techniques. If you want to live a happier and more fulfilled life, please visit us at http://successstrategiesconsultants.com

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