Most of the things you really want are not going to come to you overnight, this week, or next month. Most of what is truly important to you will take years, sometimes a lot longer.
How can you go on, knowing that you have so much further to go?
Persistent people arm themselves with the knowledge that what they want can be done. They focus not on the distance they must go to get what they want, but on the belief that what they want is possible, that they can do it. Persistent people also understand that as important as it is to understand the task in front of them, it is even more important to understand themselves and the perspective they have on the future.
Sometimes he has trouble convincing even his wife, but investment adviser John Conover tells everyone that the stock market is a great long-term investment.
“There is no better long-term investment. Disciplined, long-term investing in a diversified group of stocks is not sexy or thrilling or likely to make you rich overnight. But then again, there isn’t anything that’s going to make you rich overnight.”
He explains, “Good companies with good products will make money, and in the long run their stock will appreciate. There will be dips, because of weak years for the company or the economy overall, but patience will guarantee that you hold the stock when the good years come. And the good years will outnumber the bad.”
Trying for immediate returns from stocks, to John is “a fool’s game. It’s hazardous to your financial health and something I recommend only if you want to lose all your investments rather than make money.”
Comparing people who tend to give up easily with people who tend to carry on, even through difficult challenges, researchers find that persistent people spend twice as much time thinking, not about what has to be done, but about what they have already accomplished, the fact that the task is doable, and that they are capable of it.
Sparrow 1998