Persevere; synonyms include to keep going, to be determined, to see something through, stand ones ground, persist, hold on, endure, go the distance, stop at nothing and leave no stone unturned. Why is it important to persevere? It is similar to persist which means to continue in a course of action or keep an opinion in spite of difficulty. It’s comparable to endure which means to suffer something painful or difficult while being patient or to remain in existence.
Yet to persevere is not just a verb that we use to describe pushing through some difficult situation or not giving up. It’s not just remaining alive and existing in this world. It’s more than being determined not give up. To persevere means to continue in your course of action or purpose even in the face of difficulty and with little or no hope of success. Now this doesn’t mean that we should just keep doing the same things we are doing and eventually expect a different result. In order to see change, we need to change ourselves our habits or our lifestyle. Perseverance is about having faith in yourself, your relationship or your current course of action and being determined to keep pushing through the bad to get to the good even if you don’t feel like you are getting any closer. We can apply it to many real life situations and because I am pretty fitness obsessed lets apply it in that area of life.
You’re stagnant. You’re not moving forward in your relationships, career, faith, or hobbies. You have lost that spark for life, that excitement that drove you to play harder, push more and not accept anything less than the best. Somethings changed and you are stuck. You spend your evenings staying up late to “deload” from your crazy days and you never get a true good night’s rest. Each year you’ve put on weight and you tell yourself its ok because you are busy and stressed and have no time to worry about health. You’ll do it later at a more convenient time. Well sadly that time never comes. Now you are depressed and hopeless.
But all humans are resilient so eventually you decide it’s time to change and you buy a gym membership, start following health blogs and go grocery shopping for the first time in months. You make a goal to lose weight, sleep better and eat healthier. Three weeks goes by and where do you find yourself? Back to your old habits. Take out containers litter the counter, Netflix is on and you are hanging out in your sweat pants eating your comfort snack. What happened? Three weeks went by and you gave it everything you had. You got up early, ate healthy, went to the gym 4 days a week, put a limit on binge watching your favorite shows and even gave up alcohol. But time went by and you didn’t FEEL a huge change in your body or mind. You barely lost 2 lbs. It just sucked. It was hard. You were even more tired. You think to yourself: What is this energy everyone talks about after exercising? And endorphins?! Those are a lie. With all that I gave up, you would think I would feel like a different person now?!
You feel sore and worn out physically and mentally. You have given up. You have not persevered. You went through a difficult situation with minimal optimism and instead of being determined to not give up you succumbed to your hopelessness. You couldn’t even recognize your own progress. You just felt that it was too much work, too challenging, too stressful and you gave up before you really even started. If only you viewed your initial changes (exercising, eating better, sleeping more) as progress you would have been determined to not give up. If you had pushed yourself through this challenge even though you didn’t feel like you were progressing eventually you would have seen results. Then all of the sweat, struggle and stress was worth it! But most times we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. We don’t have enough confidence in ourselves to imagine a different me, a stronger me, a better me.
Now I bring this up to help shed light on what it really means to persevere in your struggles whether they have to do with your health, your mind or your relationships. Whether they be huge, scary, seemingly insurmountable problems or little challenges you face in everyday life. Maybe you just read my little anecdote and it hit some nerve or tugged at your heart strings. Good! Let it motivate you to continue in your struggles whatever they may be. Be determined to develop perseverance. Don’t stop your forward momentum because YOU can’t see your progress. Who are you to even decide that you are progressing or not?! Most of the time we are our own worst enemies anyway and we can be so critical on ourselves that we do not allow ourselves to see the positive changes that we have made. Or maybe the progress is so slow that we are impatient with ourselves. Whatever the case may be, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT slowdown in your journey because you cannot at the moment see your progress.
So exactly HOW do we learn to persevere? Well I am sorry to say that I can’t tell you that. It’s not that I am keeping a secret from you, it’s just that I only know how I personally persevered in my challenges. Every individual must learn for himself or herself how to develop the determination to persevere in their specific situations. The more you persevere the better you will get at doing it and the more confidence you will have in yourself when dealing with new challenges in the future. Throughout your experiences you will develop the skills and qualities needed to endure. You will learn how to hold on in spite of what may seem like the world turning against you.
So before you give up ask yourself have I kept going and been determined to see something through? Have I stood my ground, persisted, held on, endured, gone the distance, and stopped at nothing leaving no stone unturned in order to accomplish my goal? If you can’t say yes, then you best not give up now.
Continue moving forward, you will get there eventually. Maybe not when you want to but don’t give up. Believe in yourself that you can surmount the insurmountable. Persist in your perseverance and you will progress. I promise.