Success is Stamina: To Win Means to Keep Playing | Scott H Young

Success tends to accrue in two different modes:

• Build up: It is the steady accumulation of improvements that you can see month after month, that will eventually help you reach your destination.
• Breakthroughs: It requires a lot of effort with no visible benefits, but every once in a while, there's an insight that unlocks your potential.

Stamina may increase the odds of success. However, life rarely involves a single pursuit. We are continually trading one activity against another. Those with greater endurance in one pursuit may miss a different one where success comes easier.

While there are many dead-ends and pitfalls, it is also clear that success requires stamina. One has to work on faith that everything will eventually pay off.

The key to long-distance running is pacing. If you're running faster than what your body can effectively sustain, you'll burn out. If you pick a speed just below that critical threshold, you can run for hours with the right mindset.

Set yourself up in a way so that sustaining effort for years is a viable option. It should include mental stamina. 

Dead-ends are everywhere, and many efforts go nowhere.

• Periodically ask yourself whether you genuinely have better opportunities than the one in front of you. Avoid the thinking that leads you to believe that the grass is always greener on the other side.
• Focus on the process of the pursuit itself, rather than the goal. The process should be tolerable, even exciting.