At some point in every long project, you’ll hit a motivational rock-bottom. A bad day, week, or month where you don’t feel like doing any work. You’ve been writing, coding and working for months and the initial enthusiasm that got you started is gone. Now you’re left staring at your computer screen blankly, as doubts […]
Is More Commitment Always a Good Thing?
Last week I wrote two articles about measuring and building your persistence levels. I started on the idea that your level of persistence is your ability to keep going without any positive feedback. Ideally, your persistence would be unlimited, and you wouldn’t quit, even in the face of a complete lack of reinforcement. While more […]
Building Your Persistence Levels
Yesterday, I wrote about discovering your persistence levels. Commitment, I argued, isn’t the same as motivation. While motivation is the push to seek rewards and results, persistence is the ability to continue even when those rewards and results don’t appear. Persistence is important along with motivation because most goals have vacuums. Vacuums where you get […]
How to Measure Your Degree of Persistence
Recently, Cal Newport over at Study Hacks, wrote an interesting article where he claims that getting started is overrated. He argues that too many people get started without commitment. As a result, they waste valuable time and energy on pursuits that they will give up after a few months of haphazard effort. Action without persistence […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.