Happy New Persevere

Creativity.

Vigor.

Emotional intelligence.

Charisma.

Self-confidence.

Emotional stability.

Physical attractiveness.

Some people are endowed with all these natural gifts.

And yet achieve only modest success.

What separates high achievers from those who achieve only modest success?

People have asked this question through history.

In 1907, William James observed what for most of us holds true: “Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental resources . . . men the world over possess amounts of resource, which only exceptional individuals push to their extremes of use.”

The answer, according to this study, is grit.

Grit, defined as “Perseverance and passion for long-term goals”.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Persevere.

May this be the year when you do everything with “grit”.

Whatever your goals, may you have the doggedness to stay the course ….

Even when fatigue, boredom, failure, discouragement, obstacles, illness, lack of progress, and other people’s advances dishearten you.

Keep going.

Because success may be just around the next corner.

Or the next. Or the next.

Read my post Meditations on the Weed to see how many nexts you should be measuring your determination by.

In big things and in small, doggedness pays off.

Because just when we think we are not getting anywhere and we are never going to achieve something….

…..we do.

Like when I first learned to make rice.

I just could not get the hang of it.

I would end up over-cooking or under-cooking it.

All the time.

And then suddenly one day I got it right.

And never looked back.

Phew.

It was a big achievement for the twice-a-day rice-eating person of Asian Indian origin that I am.

Or that I used to be.

In recent years, when I became health conscious, I switched to healthier eating habits.

I had to persevere again to stick with my new diet. My post 4 Healthy Eating Ideas I learned from My Friend Julia tells you about some of the choices I made.

So perseverance means trying and trying again.

But perseverance also means…..

…. being prepared to make the journey even when the destination is completely uncertain and far from sight.

Andrew Gide said: “One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”

Christopher Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and Henry Morton Stanley must have had the spirit of this quote coursing through their veins to undertake the journeys they did.

Perseverance also means….

….being willing to follow where your muse leads you and being willing to create for creativity's sake.

Do you know that when Stieg Larsson created the hit Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series, he created it for his own entertainment, following his muse? The books were discovered only after his death.

Perseverance also means...

….having faith.

Believing wholeheartedly that what you want to do can be done.

Abraham Lincoln believed this. He said…..“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.”

Perseverance also means….

…..sacrificing short-term payoffs.

Many great accomplishments can only be achieved over the long term.

Such as starting a business.

In the short term, all you may be able to do is survive.

But bit by bit, building on the previous day’s lessons, resources, experience, connections, franchise, and stream of income, you can ultimately expect to thrive and get your due reward.

Likewise, if you want to be a doctor, in the short to medium term, it will be study, study, study and more study (while your friends play).

But if you persevere and keep at it, when you are done, you will be able to count on a stable and rewarding future.

Perseverance almost always involves ….

….hard work and preparation.

For instance, if you plan to participate in a marathon, you will need to persevere in training for it months ahead.

Anyone who has successfully completed a marathon or a walk like the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (my friend Majella is one of them) will tell you you can’t be a weekend warrior or a couch potato and hope to do it. Why do you think so many people join Team in Training to prepare?

The world definitely needs more people who can persevere.

Because in crucial fields such as human rights, victories are almost always won because of perseverance.

The perseverance of dogged souls who won't back down.

From Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass to Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King Jr.

From Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Margaret Sanger to Susan B Anthony....

and more...

......the history of human rights is the history of people who persevered.

Indeed, social progress is almost always achieved because of people who persevere.

In fact, if you desire anything that’s out of the norm, be prepared to persevere to get it.

In asking to telecommute in each of my jobs in America, I had to persevere to achieve my aim.

What are the times when you have persevered and stood your ground to get something you really wanted?

We all have different principles and goals and privileges we are willing to persevere for.

And perseverance means different things to different people.

Here’s John Quincy Adams, one of the founding fathers of the U.S. on perseverance…. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”

Here’s Newt Gingrich on perseverance “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”

And here’s Julie Andrews on perseverance “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” If you are, or have been an advertising copywriter or art director, I am sure you can relate to Andrews’ idea of perseverance.

Finally….this could be the story of how Mahatma Gandhi won India’s independence, “Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.”

Happy New Year.

Happy New Persevere.

I end with this beautiful quote from Rabindranath Tagore:

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but
for the heart to conquer it.”