A skill that I find to be very hard for people to truly understand is Persistence.
Persisting to reach your goals sounds nice on paper but it’s not something many people actually implement.
Not because they do not persist through a lot of things but because they do not persist through the important things.
Many people get this idea that persisting means things will be tough and then they are home free!
That
it’s just one hard push, one problem or one negative event they have to
make it through to get to their success, but it’s so much more than
that!
Persistence is not something that is shown every once in a while, it’s something you have to commit to against all reason!
There
will be days you feel you deserve to slow down, days where it’s much
more enticing to give up and days where the pain of continuing is so
grand that it would be not only easier but also relieving to finally
drop it.
It’s those days that truly mark your persistence!
Many people stop persisting once things get reasonable.
They
accept the reasonable sounding excuses, stop when things get dangerous,
scary or when they seem not worth it anymore and get stuck because of
that.
Their minds form their perspective in such a way that the things seem reasonable to drop.
People
do not stop on their journey because of one big negative event but
because of the consistent, reasonable sounding excuses that slowly, but
surely, diffuse them out!
Persistence is unreasonable.
Those that persist do not stop when others tell them to.
They do not quit when they should, when it seems bad or when everybody else would give up.
They persist through their reasons!
And I know this sounds crazy but it’s true.
Think about the last time you quit your workout routine:
There was no big event, no broken bone and no life-altering situation that caused you to quit.
You
were tired one day and did a little less than you committed to, but
still enough, or you skipped one day because you were stressed on time
to do some other thing that was happening, or simply counted something
as a workout that wasn’t truly your workout.
And it was totally reasonable!
But then the next time you did a little less again, skipped another day or counted something else entirely.
Slowly but surely you did less and less and less until you eventually dropped it entirely.
That is what being reasonable gets you; that is what persistence fights!
And of course you still have to have some sense of reason about you, but make it a higher standard.
Only
do not workout when you are physically unable to, only quit when other
people create an intervention to stop you, and only give up when you’ve
gone against your reason a couple times at least!
Your mind uses your reasons to keep you down and you will not persist if you listen to it.
Make your journey unreasonable, learn to fight your initial justifications and persist against all odds.
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Lukas Schwekendiek
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