Pillars of Persistence

Welcome to seeds of success. Today’s personal development will be looking at persistence. Persistence is one virtue that great achievers habitualize. It's interesting to know that people don’t give up only when they face opposition. There are three times when people give up. They could give up at the face of opposition, they could give up when they feel they have achieved a reasonable percentage of a project so they think they know how the completed version will look like, and thirdly people give up after first success. The first is common, the second is pernicious and the third is just ridiculous.

Persistence is not a natural occurring trait, but like many other virtues it is developed. Persistence is one of the key pillars of personal development but on what does persistence stand? There are three important pillars of persistence.

1. Hope: every act of persistence reclines upon a given hope. Nobody will continue giving time, effort and resources into an obviously hopeless venture. It is said that where there is life there is hope but where there is hope then there is the will and strength for persistence to hold through. But what is hope? Hope is not wishing that help will come; it is knowing it. A life to be pitied is not the one who has lost possession, family, friends, good reputation nor the one who has lost arms and legs, sight or hearing, but the one who has totally lost hope in living. Hope is a cardinal factor not only for persistence but in living.

2. A worthy goal: the achievability of a goal is determined not only by the individual whose objective it is to achieve the goal, but on the worthiness and importance of the goal. Psychologically you give yourself a reason to give up when your goal is not worth the effort, risk and resources to persist all the way in achieving it. And that way it is hard to keep up the will and strength of your persistence. For persistence to hold through the many obstacles and opposing forces, it must rest on a sure bet that the goal is worth it.

3. Habit: habits are very important determinants in the formation of character and eventually the direction of one's life. It is very important that we choose wisely and form habits consciously. People who give up don’t do so just because they like to be quitters, knowing that quitters are referred to as losers. They usually do because they have formed the habit of quitting when things seem not to be working out well. On the other hand there are others who through conscious efforts learned the discipline of not being easy quitters at the face of difficulty. Your persistence or in-persistence drives towards the direction of the habits you have built about it over time.

As you work to achieve your goals, let your persistence stand on firm pillars to pull you through the obstacles and opposition that will come your way.

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog on seeds of success. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Have a great day.