After all of these years, I have finally realized the single secret ingredient to success: perseverance.

.

I was looking over my posts from the past few weeks, and as I re-read them I saw a common thread—in almost every post, somewhere in it I am mentioning the importance of not giving up or walking away from your dreams or goals.  As I sat there puzzled, I began to think: was I subconsciously writing these posts to myself? Was I trying to tell my own self to not give up?

 .

Strange, isn’t it?

.

I have endured the struggles of learning about blogging, invested countless hours designing (and redesigning) the site, faced the rejection of support from family and friends, forced myself out of my comfort zone to promote it and make it into what I truly want it to be………all the while working hard to keep up with all of my other life responsibilities and make sure that everything stays balanced.

 .

…..all of this I have gone through, and I am thinking of giving up??? (!!!!!)

.

Whoa.

.

I had to take a moment to really examine myself and my thoughts—so much so that I took out a note pad and started to illustrate my journey thus far.  After about an hour, what did I see on the paper?  I saw that yes, I have gone through a lot for the sake of this site (and I still am), but I also have watched it develop and grow into something that has become far greater than myself, far more than what I had in mind on those original sketches when the idea of starting a blog first came to mind.  I have experienced the joy of people telling me that my words have inspired and encouraged them, the excitement of my site being recognized and commended by others in the industry, and the size and reach of my audience increasing more and more each day.  Sure, I’m a long way from being a Perez Hilton or Afrobella, but that was never my intention when I started this site anyway—I simply wanted to help people.  From the looks of it so far, I seem to be doing just that. That’s when it hit me: since I absolutely love blogging; I have already come so far and I want to do even more and see my site evolve even more, there is no way that I’m giving up—I am determined to persevere on.

 .

You might be asking yourself right now, “Why did she write this quirky post??” 🙂   I wrote this in hopes that it can be a lesson of motivation to someone out there, and the lesson is this:

.

Whether it is parenthood,  a relationship, a new job, completing a degree, starting a business, etc., all of us want to be successful in the ventures that we take on in life.  In every one of these ventures the secret ingredient of success is the same: perseverance.  It may be rough at the start, and you may hit some bumps in the road along your journey—you may even notice that things are not progressing as much or as quickly as you hoped they would, but please remember that this is all a part of the process that it takes to achieve success. As you persevere, the process is sure to intensify for you, but you have to go through it if you desire to get to higher levels.  Do not let it deter you from your destination–things will certainly get better as you go along.  You can make it there if you just stick with it.  In the mix of everything else, this is the most important ingredient there is.

.

. 

The equation is simple:

 .

No perseverance = No success

Much perseverance = Much success 🙂

 .

.