Page 219 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

The Biggest Ingredients to Success are Perseverance and Being Habitual
Perseverance is one big key to success. The other is being habitual.
More often than not, to get success, whether it be in sports, business or life, you have to be disciplined, i.e. to be good at rugby, stick to a diet or learn skills required to get a degree or other qualification you have to
persevere. Natural skills alone do not mean success.
If you look at people who have been successful, they have achieved
success not only by creating and sticking to habits, it’s as much through their perseverance, pushing through the barriers and not giving up.
I took up karate at 38 years of age and it took me until my 50th birthday to get what is called a ‘shodan’ or black belt, and that came from creating a habit. Over many years I used to go to karate three times a week, and in my off time spent time on my punching bag, doing kata, creating a habit to learn the skills to get a black belt. I had to be habitual and put plans in place to get a black belt. It was very frustrating at times because I had to set time aside from my normal life activities and it felt quite selfish being away from my family. Although it was extremely tough at times, I did not give up but persevered in order to achieve that goal. It’s no different to weight loss or any other sporting or business activity. In
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