By Michelle L. Casto

What do you think makes someone successful? Do you believe them to be lucky? Do they have perfect product to market? Are they exceptionally smart? While it is true that a little luck, a solid product and being smarts helps, true success comes from one thing: persistence. A dictionary definition of persistence is “to continue steadfastly or often annoyingly, esp. in spite of opposition; to be tenacious.” When someone is persistent, they are able to take obstacles in stride and even jump over them, they see failure as an essential part of learning process, and remain committed to their goals, dreams, and aspirations. Successful people use seemingly “negative” experiences to guide them on their path to success, rather than seeing mis-stakes as proof of their failure to achieve. In fact, some of best and brightest in our nation’s history failed many times over. Thomas Edison who said, “If we all did things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” This comes from same man who invented and patented more things than any other living soul, and who is best known for creating light bulb. He literally lit up world, and only did so because he kept trying. In fact, it is reputed that it took him over 1000 experiments before he found right combination! Success is more about what is on inside of person than what you see on outside. It is what they are made up of: a strong will, positive belief system, faith in a higher power, dedication, commitment, and a persistent, even stubborn nature. They won’t take no for an answer! They have made up their minds to succeed no matter what. They stay with course until end. And most always, they do and re-do, practice, and polish until they get it just right. They understand that success is a process. It is important that you are aware that you decide for yourself level of success you think you deserve. It is all a mindset. “What you believe and conceive, you can achieve” is a maxim of success-minded. Your thoughts influence your feelings, and your feelings influence your actions---all of which have brought you to where you are today.

There is a man we all know who represents what I am talking about: Read this story and see if you know who it is…….

That was a pivotal realization for me. I subsequently learned what commitment means and how it shows up for me. Maybe this is on my mind now because I'm coming up on a significant wedding anniversary-- my first. That aspect of my life is working well. What about parts that aren't?

I recently had to cancel two workshops because not enough people had signed up. Certainly beautiful weather and/or frightening world circumstances may have been factors. But I wonder how much of lack of interest was generated by me. For both events I had created a design that was about 80% complete and I stopped there. I had main ideas worked out but didn't finish final agenda or produce handouts. Was this prescience or a self-fulfilling prophesy? Are people not committing to me because I'm not committing to them? Which is cause and which is effect?