Focus on perseverance

Focus on perseverance

A clear message during this global pandemic has always been to keep your distance or stay home so you can stay safe. But we don’t know how long it will last, so in our latest blog we focus on perseverance, because it may be helpful when talking with family and friends or for any clients who are finding this time difficult.

As a professional coach we help others listen to their emotions so they can make sense of how they feel, but do also know it’s difficult for some people to stay positive. With our normal coping mechanisms tested to the limit, many of us will be feeling bored, frustrated and lonely right now.

So what can we do as a professional coach to help our clients focus on the future and take this one day at a time?

Skills review

One option is to work with them to review their skills and identify how they naturally react to situations like this. By helping them to understanding their strengths and talents, or any areas they could focus on, they can see what can be done to develop better coping mechanisms. Especially when they could be questioning how realistic is it for them to simply – Keep Calm and Carry On.

Quote

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.”

Henry Ford

Focus on perseverance

Having a focus on perseverance is one key personal skill that could be very helpful to your clients right now and is defined as:

“The ability to achieve objectives by overcoming difficulties and obstacles.”

It has been scientifically proven that our brain tries to protect us from pain, by making us give up when something hurts. For example, when we get tired or pull muscles while exercising, or when we are afraid of getting hurt, so we do not even attempt something because we are afraid of losing face if we fail. Having a focus on perseverance therefore requires the strength of will to resist outside pressures or instead embrace them and then let them go.

Avoid disaster scenarios

To avoid getting carried away with disaster scenarios, we would suggest a focus on the present and to see the future as a series of little here and nows. As Nury Vittachi puts it in his book, The Kamasutra of Business:

“Any question to which the answer is a hypothetical reading of the future is not worth asking and will only put you off.”

Increase the chance of persevering

Some examples of the things you can talk to your client about to increase their chances of persevering:

1. Break down goals into bite-size steps
2. Share goals with people who can give encouragement
3. Set rewards at each step of the way (not just at the end)
4. Imagine how it will feel once the goal is achieved

Tip: Often the thing we’re the most afraid of doing is the very thing we should focus on the most. The toughest thing is knowing we have to do something that we keep putting off.