Dear Grandchildren:
Thank you Sarah for writing last month’s newsletter on expectations. I enjoyed Sarah’s challenge of helping us to develop an action plan to meet or exceed our expectations. Great job Sarah!
This month I would suggest to you to Practice Persistence!
Persistence is probably the most common quality of high achievers; they refuse to give up. But, most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. Why do they give up?
It’s not always going to be easy
Sometimes, you are going to have to persist in the face of obstacles that no amount of planning could have predicted. The going may be hard, requiring you to refuse to give up while you learn new lessons, develop new parts of yourself, and make difficult decisions.
But you will succeed if you will just: Never give up on your hopes and dreams.
Consider this:
- Admiral Robert Peary attempted to reach the North Pole seven times before he made it on try number eight.
- In its first twenty-eight attempts to send rockets into space, NASA had twenty failures.
- Oscar Hammerstein had five shows that lasted less than a combined total of 6 weeks before Oklahoma! which ran for 269 weeks and grossed $7 million.
- Tawni O’Dell’s career as a writer is a testament to her perseverance. After 13 years, she had written six unpublished novels and collected three hundred rejections slips. Finally, her first novel, Black Roads, was published in January 2000. Oprah Winfrey chose her book for the Oprah Book Club, and the newly-anointed novel rose to number two on the New York Times Best Seller List, where it remained for 8 weeks.
“It’s always to soon to quit,” says Norman Vincent Peale, an inspirational author.
How to deal with obstacles:
Whenever you confront an obstacle or run into a roadblock, you need to stop and brainstorm ways to get around, over, or through the block. Many ways will work, but you will find them only if you spend time seeking them. Always be solution-oriented in your thinking and persevere until you find a way that works.
Put yourself in this couples’ shoes. They quit their jobs, borrowed money for grocery equipment, and traveled to Kalkaska, Michigan to open a grocery store. When they arrived in Kalkaska, the man who was going to rent them the building changed his mind. Right then, your great grandparents, Glen and Doris Catt could have given up on their dream of owning their own grocery business; instead, they persisted.
They decided to rent a building in Gaylord, Michigan in 1951 from a man who had just lost his grocery business because people said the store was too far out of town for it to survive. Your great grandparents worked 7 days a week for many years and their hard work and persistence paid off. Wow! What an example for you to follow.
In this new year, I challenge you all to make a promise to yourself to follow the advice of Sir Winston Churchill. He was invited to speak at a graduation ceremony. His speech was the shortest speech on record, and I close with his words.
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
Until next month,
Love Grandpa