Unfortunately, most of us don’t have years of our lives to waste just to measure the level of commitment to a new project. Although it won’t measure the real thing, I think there is a thought experiment that comes pretty close to pinpointing the actual value.
Are You Willing to Work Forever?
Pick any goal you want to measure your persistence for. Now, ask yourself how long you would be willing to work on the goal, without any positive feedback. How long would you be willing to work on a project, without being able to see any results from your efforts?
That length of time, I believe, is a rough estimate of your commitment to a project. Notice I didn’t ask how long you would be willing to work on a project. Instead, I asked, how long you would be able to work in a vacuum, devoid of any knowledge that you were making progress.
If you want to get in shape, ask yourself how long you would be willing to go to the gym every day, if you didn’t lose a single pound, didn’t increase at all in strength, or didn’t look any different. How long would you be willing to last?
If you want to start a business, ask yourself how long you would be willing to keep experimenting and producing without earning a single dollar of revenue. Or receiving any indication that your business would continue.
Obviously, working forever without any results means you’re doing something wrong. Either you’ve picked an impossible pursuit (try flying by flapping your arms) or your approach is completely broken.
However, as a thought experiment, this question is still valuable. There are going to be periods in the pursuit of any goal, where you will completely lack positive feedback. You won’t have any motivational fuel to encourage you forward. The question is based on how long you feel you can continue in spite of this total absence of results.
awesome article dear