One of the greatest predictors of success in any endeavour is persistence. It’s not only how hard you try; it’s how long you try. We tend to overestimate how much we can accomplish in the short term. And according to an American pastor and author, we also ‘underestimate how much we can accomplish over the long haul. Why? Because energy is exponential. The harder you work and the longer you work, the more it pays off.

'In a study involving Japanese and American first graders, kids were given a difficult puzzle to solve while researchers measured how long they would try before giving up. On average, the American children lasted 9.47 minutes. The Japanese children lasted 13.93 minutes. That is a 47 per cent difference. Want to guess who scores higher on standardised maths tests?

'Success in any endeavour is a by-product of trying harder and trying longer. There are no substitutes. There are no shortcuts. It doesn’t matter whether it’s athletics or academics, music, or maths [or ministry]. Study after study has shown that it takes about ten years or ten thousand hours to become great at anything. You need to work hard and work long. In the words of Malcolm Gladwell, “Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

'Are there any God ideas you’ve given up on? Any God-ordained passions that you have stopped fighting for? Any God-sized dreams gathering the dust of disobedience? Don’t give up on them. You need to try. Then you need to try harder. And then you need to try longer.’