COURAGE AND PERSISTENCE AS A TOOL TO GET TO THE TOP CONTEST

I will like to start with one of my favorite quote from Biz Stones who says, "Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success."

This is the first quote that came to mind when I thought about the contest topic. Courage and persistence as a tool to get to the top.
In my very first days on Steemit, I received a post notification from @dobartim, in his post he highlighted the importance of this two words, Courage and persistence and advised me to be persistence to get to the top.

At this point, I will like to define these two key words the way I understand them.

Courage.

Courage as define by the Oxford dictionary is the ability to do something that frigthens someone. That means courage comes into play when we encounter fear. Fear is one of the strongest emotions a human has. Now the normalcy is that when the mind encounters fear, the conscious mind (which was define in Millionaires mindset by the author as the captain of the ship and the subconscious as the crew) has the tendency to back down, give up and walk ways from the situation. The captain tells the crew to give up and like every ship, the crew knows nothing but to obey the captains orders.

But in a situation where the captain fights the natural impulse of running away, of giving up when faced by fear and continuous to strive, then we say courage has stepped in, when the captain tells the crew to keep going despite the anxiety to stop.

Persistence.

The act of continuing in an opinion, or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition by the Oxford dictionary. I like to include words like perseverance. This two words persistence and perseverance describes patience in so many ways.
This bring me to the rule of 5 by John Maxwell who describes persistence, perseverance and patience in a wonderful way.
The rule of 5.
The rule of 5 says, if you have a big tree at
the back of your yard and you want to cut it down, instead of putting so much power in the first days to cut it down which you might not succeed and get demotivated. Why not go to the tree and take 5 swings at it everyday, just 5 swings, no more no less. Even if the tree takes one year to fall down, the fact is the tree will fall down.
The big tree in this rule stands for something that is hard and difficult to do.

In life we are faced with challenges, difficullties, fear everyday. These things cannot be absent in our daily life, now what we do with the challenges we face makes the difference if we stay at the bottom not get to the top.

The ability to continue to do something even when you are not sure you will succeed,even in the midst of adversity and difficulties is what we need in order to get to the top. Courage to dare to achieve our dreams and vision and the ability to keep doing is what we need.

Situations where I have encountered difficulties and demonstrated courage.

First of all, I will like to talk about my origin. I am an African, Cameroon to be specific and the news now about Cameroon is the Anglophone crisis that has been going on now for over 4 years. I live in Bamenda in the Northwest region, the heart of the crisis. The crisis which started in 2016 was first of all a call for the boycott of schools. The separatist banded schools and stopped people from going to school and if you were caught going to school you would be killed at worst or kidnapped and pay a huge Ransom for your release. At this time I was in the second year of Master of Business administration in Accounting and Finance in the University of Bamenda. For one year we did not go to school and so I could not graduate as planned.
The next academic year 2017/2018 was still a threat of school but I needed to continue school. The University started but very timidly and amongst 30 of us that started the course, just 15 of us had the courage to continue and in 2018 I did graduate with a Second class upper division MBA in Accounting and Finance.

This is just one story i like to relate about courage in my life.

Now talking about Courage and persistence as a tool to the top in Steemit.
Today makes me 2 weeks into the Steemit platform for the second time with the user name @ebuahsang1. It has not been easy as a newbie on Steemit to get the adequate interactions I would like to get for the content I am creating. As I once shared in one of my contest story my regrets for not being courageous and persistence the first time I joined Steemit in 2018. This time I am determined to make it to the top.

Some difficulties that I face on Steemit are as follows.

1. Low level interaction. It is very difficult to creat contents and even when I do, I don't get the reaction I want from my content. At some moments I wallow in thoughts thinking my content is not good enough and giving up seems the best way to follow, but I understand that it takes time to move to the top. Like Biz Stone will advice, timing, perseverance and trying for ten years, I definitely believe I will get to the top.

2. High internet cost and slow connectivity.
   It is no news that Africa is very backward when it comes to technology. The cost of accessing the internet is not only high but very slow. It is very difficult to get good content and post in time.

3. Electricity.
   Due to the crisis in Cameroon, one of the facility supplying electricity was destroyed by the non state armed boys. This has caused the supply of electricity in the region very difficult. Most times we get electricity just for 6 hours a days from 12pm to 6pm. And I prefer to work during the early mornings from 3am on Steemit.

Even in the midst of all these difficulties, I have always found a way to post atleast one content a day and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.

Ways to demonstrate courage and get to the top.

1. I am part of the power up Steem project in Cameroon and I look forward to 5000SP by the end of this year without powering down.
2. I am working on a Steemit sensitisation compaign to recruit over 1000 new Steemians this year. This two weeks have seen me bring more than 20 newbies and I am working with them to do the various achievements.
3. Currently, I participate in contest like this to help me gain more steems so I can reach my goal of powering up to 5000sp.
4. Last but not the least, I am dedicated to producing and posting valuable contents on a daily base.

My proposed contest is a Power up contest for newbies for a duration of atleast 6 months.
No powers down should be done and awesome prices should await steemians who don't power down.
This is in a bit to discourage newbies from powering down and encourage them to work for the top.

If I do this consistently, I know I will get to the top.
@steemitwarrior
@iykewatch
@tatjanastan.