Winston Churchill famously said, “Never, never, never give up!”
What does this mean for you? Is your best is yet to be? What great accomplishments still await you? Never give up on striving for better and realizing your greatest life accomplishments. Here are 9 practices to help you “never give up,” beat mediocrity, overcome inaction, set your sail against the current, and strive for your best!
Why It Matters
How many successful people have achieved inspiring goals and aspirations without perseverance, grit, and determination? We can’t think of any. The path to success and achievement is always marked by setbacks, failure, challenges, and a need to persevere. It’s a hard path. It requires going against the current. That’s why the mindset and skillset to never give up is essential. So, here are 9 practices to help you conquer and succeed!
Nine Practices to Persist and Succeed
- Develop a strong sense of purpose. Develop a clearly written vision and set goals. Print them, post them. These are your compass, your why, and your anchor. They are your motivation and reason to persevere when the going gets tough!
- Expect and anticipate setbacks. Expect Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong) to come into play. If you anticipate and plan for setbacks, you’ll more readily work through them instead of getting caught off guard by them.
- Make the law of averages work in your favor. The more failures you experience, the closer you are to a grand success. Remember that failure is a rung on the ladder to success. Don’t fear it. Use it. Learn from failure and become resilient!
- Change your language. Reframe your language about challenges and setbacks. Instead of “I can’t do this,” tell yourself, “I can do this!” At each failure, remind yourself: “This is difficult, but I’m learning and getting better.” Keep your internal voice and spoken words solution-focused and vision-centric. Always ask yourself and others, “How can we make this work?” and “What are possible solutions?”
- Go to work. An Irish proverb says: “You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” Work can purge the mind of doubt and discouragement. Work will also fill the mind with optimism, hope, new ideas, and a sense of accomplishment. So, when you feel discouraged, get to work, and watch it transform your mindset.
- Surround yourself with supporters. You’ve likely heard Jim Rohn’s quote: “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Are you around people who support, inspire, and encourage you? If not, make changes. If you struggle to find these people, listen to podcasts, read books, and attend workshops to find encouragement and support. Surround yourself with winners!
- Prioritize health and well-being. Prioritize time for your health and relationships. When you’re physically, mentally, and emotionally strong, with strong relationships, you’ll be tenacious! The most effective way to do this is pre-week planning.
- Take the long view. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are dreams realized overnight. Stay committed to your goals, even when progress seems slow. How, specifically? Pre-week plan! When you pre-week plan, read over your long-term vision and goals, and determine what priorities you can work on this week towards their realization. Schedule them into your planner, and work your plan.
- Pre-week plan. Before each week begins, list your life roles (e.g., personal, work, parent, family, coach, etc.), and set 1-5 priorities for each role. Then, schedule your priorities first, before you do anything else. You’ll execute, do what matters most, and lead a life by design, rather than by default.
Wrapping Up
History is replete with examples of “never-give-up” leaders: Winston Churchill, Simone Biles, the Wright Brothers, Malala Yousafzai, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King Jr, Marie Curie, and essentially every other highly successful leader (in all facets of life).
Join their ranks by cultivating the “never-give-up” mindset. Know your vision and write it out. Expect and welcome setbacks. Use challenges and failures as opportunities and stepping stones. Learn from them. When all else fails, get to work! Along the way, surround yourself with supporters. And, pre-week plan to prioritize your health, effectively execute, and keep a long view. That’s becoming your best!
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
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