A Navy SEAL's 3 Tips for Being Persistent

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” — (John) Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

Here at SEALgrinderPT – we often talk about goals and how important they are to success.

But how do you stay on task to take on the day to day of that goal?

We had an athlete email us and say, “I tried what you told me for two weeks and I saw results. Then they stopped so I quit. What you told me doesn’t work.”

Sure. If you quit after two weeks just because it gets hard then you’ll make sure you don’t get your goal. There’s going to be times when it’s freakin’ tough.

Persistence is the key.

When I got kicked out of BUD/S the first time I had to learn a skill that I had never been exposed to before.

It is called PERSISTENCE. And I wouldn’t have made it through BUD/S the second time without it.

I could have walked away from BUD/S and made excuses. I could have quit. Any one who quits two weeks into trying to reach a goal is setting themselves up to never reach it. I had to decide if I wanted to be one of those people.

But I knew that if I did I would then make excuses for the rest of my life.

I did not want to keep on being a loser.

Video — SGPT talks about Persistence

Persistence means getting up when you are sore and tired and still doing the workout that you had scheduled.

Persistence means driving a chunk of the night to get to an event and sleeping in your car.

Waking up at first light and jumping on the hard half marathon trail run to test your skills.

It means no matter what the obstacle thrown in front of you that you continue to get out there and kick @ss towards your goal.

TIP #1: SET A GOAL

Write it down. Have someone hold you accountable.

If it is not written down it is not a goal. It is just an idea in your head. When you write it down it becomes more permanent.

This also allows you to start writing out smaller goals to break it down. At BUD/S, we called these “evolutions”. Some were long, some were short. Some I came up with on my own to make them feel smaller.

If you only focus on the end goal, it will seem impossible. A ladder has rungs to climb to get to the top. Making smaller goals does the same thing.

Check out the SGPT article Goals for Workouts and Life

TIP #2: SLICE IT UP EVEN MORE

Like I said above, break down the goal into smaller pieces (also called “chunking”). But sometimes you have to make the small short-term goals even smaller.

At BUD/S, sometimes even focusing on the end of the evolution was too much and I had to break down the goal even smaller. Like just getting one foot in front of the other.

Doing this creates a sense of accomplishment and momentum, especially when you feel like you’re in a rut or have hit a plateau, but really haven’t.

TIP #3: TAKE BABY STEPS

This is connected to #2. You have to use the KISS method—Keep It Simple Stupid.

Get started and tackle one small piece at a time. Build your way up.

You don’t have to take on the whole enchilada in one gulp.

You can’t get to the top of the ladder in one step and you can’t get to your long term goal—especially if it’s a big one—like that, either.

If your small goals feel too big, make micro goals.

If you do feel like you keep hitting walls, take time to step back and reassess your methods and make adjustments. Keep that front sight focus going.

TIP #4: NEVER QUIT

Don’t give up easily. Think of the pit bull dog who is holding on to his bone.

Be aggressive and defensive of your goals and your path towards greatness. Be the pit bull.

Don’t listen to other people’s negativity about what you want to achieve. Get rid of negativity and negative people in your life.

Listening to other people’s negativity will only make it harder for you to keep going. Your goal is your goal. Not theirs. Don’t make their goal of negativity become yours.

NEVER GIVE IN. NEVER QUIT.

Brad McLeod is one of the most sought after mental conditioning coaches in the world today having recently returned from Ireland, Southern California, Pennsylvania and parts unknown in north Florida. SEALgrinderPT audios and Ebooks have been downloaded in 40 different countries around the globe.