One of my favourite sayings is, ‘It’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get up that counts’.
 
I think that this is a very relevant expression for us as cricketers.  Basically it means that in order to succeed you have to be prepared to accept and learn from failure. 
 
Although failure is not a pleasant part of your job, it is nevertheless part of your job and as such you will need to deal with it and learn from it.  Anyone who has tasted success in any field in my view has been prepared to get up at least one more time than they were knocked down!  If you give up or admit defeat you risk never tasting success and let’s face it success in any field does not come easy and one of the main challenges in successfully attaining your goals is coping with failure! 
 
You need to develop the belief and mental toughness not to be beaten by failure, you need to develop persistence. In order to succeed you need to summon the courage to pursue your goals and dreams, despite failure in the short term, after all  ‘Form is temporary, Class is permanent!’
 
I will detail three brief examples of persistence, where successful cricketers have turned adversity into success by persistence.

• Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Matthew Hayden were all dropped from the Test team in the mid-nineties and came back years later to be devestingly, effective Test players
• Shane Warne’s comeback form suspension and personal crisis to achieve his best ever Ashes series wicket haul of 40 wickets since his debut in 1991
• Ricky Ponting comeback from a disciplinary suspension to become Australian captain and one of the world’s best batsmen

If these guys gave up when faced with adversity, disappointment and defeat they would never have gone on to achieve the wonderful success they did.  These guys had the belief, courage and persistence to keep going when they were seemingly knocked down!  Persistence is a key attribute of a champion and has very little to do with your outswinger or cut shot and the beauty of it is anyone can be persistent!  Persistence does require courage, discipline and effort, but the effort is well worth making if your dreams and goals mean a lot to you.

How is your persistence? Is it strong enough to help you achieve your goals?

Cheers

Mark