The Power of Persistence

I love this quote by Tony Robbins, “All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone” because it reaffirms to me that being uncomfortable or nervous or uncertain is a sign that I'm in the learning zone.

When you become more familiar with being outside your comfort zone, get better at doing difficult stuff...and then the difficult stuff starts becoming less difficult.

Resilience is a tool that can help you 'stick at it' when you are outside your comfort zone.

My very first businesses in natural therapies as a Shiatsu practitioner (like acupuncture, but without needles). I was 22 years old when I opened the practice. I was not schooled in marketing, sales or business development. Quite the opposite. I was a typical natural therapist in the 1990s - long haired, tree hugging, group chanting and green about life.

I would often speak with my father about my business challenges and finding more clients. I would say 'people aren't interested', to which dad would ask 'how do you know?'.

I didn't realise then how important that question turned out to be.

Dad would then ask...

'Have you spoken to all the business owners in the street?

'Have you turned up to the community festivals?'

'Have you called on your friends and family?'

Of course, I hadn't.

'Then, how do you know?' he would ask again.

Persistence doesn't require a tertiary education.

Persistence doesn't have an age requirement.

Persistence doesn't rely on your past results

Persistence just needs your participation.

I later stumbled across the following statistics about sales that 80% of prospects say "no" four times before they say "yes". [1]. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, very few prospects will buy from you the first time you ask. Most prospects, in fact, say “no” four times before they say “yes”. Interestingly, 44% of salespeople give up after just 1 attempt [2]

Dad's question continues to echo in my ears.... 'how do you know?'

Where can you stretch your comfort zone this week?

What success might you achieve if you just kept going that little bit longer?

'Fall down seven times, get up eight' - Japanese proverb