If you have a dream, follow it. No matter how wild, outrageous, and improbable it may seem. If possible travel on your journey with friends who will support you. Friendship can keep your faith alive long after your energy and hope have been worn away.

Another thing you might want to do is to go where your probability of success is greatest.

When you work long and hard at the apparently futile, remember that your sense of futility is a lie; it is merely your conditioned mind reminding you of your limits; the lie seeks to eliminate your future promise.

Sooner or later, you'll get results.

Above all, in the throes of failure persist. Persistence can initiate success. When talent and effort have been exhausted, persistence will carry you through to the end. Sometimes all that is needed to change a hopeless situation is hanging on until you find the millionth pebble.

In the memorable words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never give up."

The mass appeal of movie-character Indiana Jones is that he symbolizes the quality of persistence. No matter how bad things get, he keeps on trying one more time.

Eventually, somehow, despite every reversal, he breaks through to his goal.

You, too, must learn the art of persistence. Persist when you're completely exhausted. Persist when all efforts fail. Persist when you feel hopeless. You will find your dream if you can persist long enough.

You may sometimes win through sheer luck. You may sometimes win through broad talent. But, eventually, neither luck nor talent will be enough, and the principle of persistence is all that you will have left. In the end, it may be that persistence is your only abiding friend. It will pull you through all the pain, all the toil, all the hardship. In the long run, persistence, more than any other trait of success, makes a true winner. Persistence pays. It pays handsomely. With persistence comes learning and adaptation. With persistence comes luck and change.

To succeed in anything, learn how to endure adversity, learn how to feel confident in the midst of obvious failure. Let no-one and nothing deter you from your heart's desire.

Water persistently washing against the hardest rock will eventually erode it away. Be as water. "Beware of no-one more than of yourself," said Charles Spurgeon. "We carry our worst enemies within us." When you give up, you let yourself down. You lose your chance at success. You also lose your self-confidence.

Persist! Stick to what you set out to do. Stick to it even if it doesn't seem worth it. Physical energy, moods, circumstances change. The darkness passes. In the face of failure, poverty, loneliness and obscurity, persistence brings you success.

Copyright 2005 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It's a shareware article.