5 Core Reasons Why Determination Is Important For Success

“I believe success is achieved by ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”

Zig Ziglar

When we talk about the keys to success, determination is the characteristic that almost always comes up top of the list.

If you look it up in the dictionary, this is the definition of being determined:

“Having made a firm decision and being resolved not to change it.”

That’s right, being determined means you will stick to your decision and not change it no matter what.

The reason most people fail to achieve what they want in life is that they give up way too soon or they keep jumping from one project to another.

As a blogger, I have seen people start a blog with the purpose to make it successful. But after a couple of weeks or months later, most of them are not working on their blogs anymore. They abandoned their blogs and jump to another ‘shiny object’.

It is the same with everything you do in life.

What is Determination?

Determination is a key skill for achieving goals in your personal and work life. It helps you stay focused and keep pushing toward important milestones. By learning more about determination, you can improve in your career and feel more motivated to tackle challenges at work.

• Key Traits of Determined Individuals

  • Persistence

  • Resilience

  • Focus

  • Patience

Regardless of whether your goal is to become a successful YouTuber with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, to write and publish a book, or to lose weight and get back in shape, you need the determination to help you succeed with it.

And in this guide, I will share with you why determination is important in life. It is the #1 quality that you must develop if you want to succeed, achieve your goals, and live a better life…

5 Importance of Determination

1. Determination allows you to persevere until you make it

Success is a long journey. And so, without determination, you will give up faster than you thought. And determination allows you to persevere and persist until you reach your destination.

At age 65, Harland Sanders was broke and penniless. He was forced to close his business when a new highway was built to bypass his restaurant. Down but not out, Harland was determined to make a comeback. But all he ever had was his fried chicken recipe.

And so Harland started his journey to sell his fried chicken recipe to business owners. He traveled door to door and visited all the restaurants in his local area. There were many nights when he had to sleep in his car. He even approached restaurant owners and cooked his fried chicken on the spot for them.

I bet you know what happened next. Harland Sanders was turned down 1,009 times before someone finally said yes to his fried chicken recipe. By 1964, Colonel Harland Sanders had 600 franchises selling his trademark chicken. That one yes has transformed the way we eat.

Colonel Harland Sanders was best known for founding Kentucky Fried Chicken, also known as KFC.

Without determination, Colonel Harland Sanders would never make it. His determination allowed him to persist and persevere despite all the odds. You can read more about it here.

Most people would have given up after receiving a couple of rejections. But not Colonel Sanders. He was determined. And that was how he managed to go through so many rejections and still move forward in life.

So, are you determined like Colonel Harland Sanders?

Read: How to Develop Determination So You Won’t Give Up

2. Determination helps you overcome failures and hardships

The second reason why determination is important is that it is a quality that helps you overcome failures, setbacks, and hardships in your journey.

Let’s face it, success is tough. It is hard. If it is easy, everyone would be successful. And because success is difficult, you will face many setbacks and failures along the way.

Therefore, without determination, you will never make it to the finish line.

The difference between extraordinary people and ordinary people is that extraordinary people are determined. They are willing to go the ‘extra’ mile and not give up. This is what makes them ‘extra’ordinary.

Ordinary people, on the other hand, choose to quit and give up whenever they encounter failures and setbacks. They choose the easy way out.

This is why so many people have dreams and goals, but only a minority of them are able to materialize what they want in life.

Imagine if your goal is to become a successful YouTuber. You plan to publish 2 videos every week. Two months later, you have published 8 videos, but the number of subscribers to your channel is less than 100. How do you feel?

Not good, right? And this is where most people choose to give up. This is also where your level of determination plays an important role.

Someone truly determined will continue to improve and work on his goal no matter what, which is to build a successful YouTube channel.

However, those who lack determination will give up on their goal. They will choose to do something else.