He's been trying to master this for weeks. He'd get his feet in the air and roll them to the side, then in an attempt to hoy his head off the ground, his feet would swing back. Without taking a break, he'd try again.
He'd fail. He'd try again.
Fail. Try. Fail. Try. Fail. Try. Fail.
He'd have a break and a sleep, wake up, have a feed then get straight back onto the job. Try. Fail. Try. Fail.
For days and days and days he kept at it.
Then, this weekend. HE DID IT!
(Of course, when he got there, he wondered what the fuss was about and wanted someone to roll him back, but that's beside the point).
Start today
We're born with the innate ability to persist. It's essential to our personal development.
When do so many of us lose it?
Perhaps someone says something to us when we're young that makes us feel de-valued. Maybe something happens in primary school and we make it mean, 'I'll never be good enough' or 'it's not worth the effort', or 'it's too hard', or 'I'm not that kind of person', or 'there's no point trying'.
In those moments, we clip our own wings.
We cut off opportunities for progress because actually achieving it seems out of reach.
Imagine if Sebastian had stopped trying to roll over the first time it didn't work. He'd have sentenced himself to a lifetime of lying stagnant on the floor.
What if JK Rowling had given up submitting the manuscript of Harry Potter after any of the twelve times it was rejected by different publishers?
What are you missing out on - that lies on the other side of your own persistence?
Next time something seems difficult, out of reach, or even impossible, think about how you got here. You learnt to roll over, to sit up, to crawl, then you tried and tried and tried over and over again to take your first steps, stay on your feet and RUN.
Was it easy? Of course not. It was incredibly challenging. It required massive persistence, dedication, effort and patience.
Those are qualities you were born with.
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