I’ve had a few days off work this week. It’s that time of year when I need to use up my holiday allocation; otherwise, it cannot be carried over, and I would lose out.
On the first day of my break, I was invited to take part in the celebrations of my friend Derek Arden’s fifth year of “Monday Night Live”. When the COVID lockdown started, Derek began a weekly live business and self-improvement Zoom call, as an experiment. He invited all his friends and business contacts. He had no idea if it would take off. But it did. Each Monday at 5pm for the past five years, a dedicated band of “MNL” followers has joined together to hear Derek interview an expert. As explained on Monday of this week, Derek’s enthusiasm, energy, and persistence have helped keep the format going.
Later in the week, I went to London for a theatrical day, with my matinée visit being to see “Les Misérables” and the evening spent crying with laughter at “The Play That Goes Wrong”. Les Misérables is the UK’s longest-running musical, currently in its 40th year on the West End Stage. That takes some doing, with eight shows a week every week. That’s persistence, too. And boy, do you need persistence to be an actor in “The Play That Goes Wrong”, because the chaos that takes place is phenomenal. They must have rehearsed thousands of times to get it right.
In the world of business, I have rarely seen such levels of persistence. I recall when I spoke at a conference about blogging and one chap was critical, saying, “I tried it once, but it didn’t work”. I pointed out that you need to be persistent, and people rarely see any benefits of blogging before continually doing it for a few months. Similarly, I have noticed people giving up on using Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, because they find it challenging to get reasonable results. They give up too soon because they are not persistent. The people who are persistent with their use of AI are the ones who are succeeding. Indeed, the boss of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, says that most people give up too early.
However, many people are frightened away from persistently carrying on because of the psychological enemy of persistence, which is perfectionism. A recent study I found intriguing established that it is possible to measure persistence by combining three elements – persistence, perseveration and perfectionism. Persistence is positive, whereas perseveration and perfectionism are negative factors. Perseveration, by the way, is when people persist in doing something when it is illogical. As Einstein might have said, that’s the definition of insanity – repeating the same behaviour over and over again but expecting different results.
The Polish researchers found, though, that our ability to persist is mediated by factors such as stress, anxiety and depression. So, that suggests that our ability to persist and succeed depends on good mental health. Removing stress from your life will help improve your ability to persist and thereby succeed. One of the main reasons you could be stressed is due to a lack of autonomy. When we have some sense that we lack control over our own lives, we become stressed. Similarly, we are stressed when we are socially isolated and feel we are not part of a community.
These days, more people are likely to feel isolated with increased time working from home. In news released this week, the UK is second from the bottom of 44 countries in terms of the hours each week spent in the office. On average in the UK, workers spend just under two days a week with their colleagues. At the same time, when working from home, they feel less autonomy as bosses introduce monitoring and “check-ins” to ensure that those out of the office are actually working. The WFH movement has a double whammy of reduced autonomy and lower socialising, which together increase anxiety and stress.
This is important in persistence because not only does the resulting stress have a negative impact, but autonomy and community sense are essential components in “Self Determination Theory”. This is the theory which helps us understand persistence. When you feel in control and have a sense of belonging, you become more persistent.
The chances are that each of us could be more persistent, not only by reducing stress and anxiety but also by going into the office more often. Even if you are self-employed, going out more and meeting people for coffee, for example, will increase your sense of community and improve your ability to persist.
Oh hang on a minute, that’s just the kind of behaviour that Derek adopts. And in West End theatres, there’s a group warm-up about an hour before the show, one purpose of which appears to be bonding, even though they all work together daily. Whether you are a lone worker, like Derek, or a West End performer, your ability to succeed through persistence is down to constantly connecting with other human beings. It reduces stress, which helps persistent behaviour, and improves your self-determination, which is linked to persistence. It is time to get out and about more.
