Perseverance, the ability to face down obstacles and keep going despite them. People who persevere will do something no matter how hard it is, no matter how long it takes, and they do it staunchly.
Perseverance, also known as grit, is a leveler. You don’t have to be the most popular person, the richest, the best, or the smartest. No, with perseverance, you can reach all of your goals because you’re willing to work for it.
You can inspire perseverance in others (children, friends, co-workers, and people around you) by role modeling perseverance. As you embark on a goal and run into obstacles, your ability to persevere (or not) is a signal to others.
Persevere, Whatever It Takes
Do you get back up after you’ve been knocked down?
Do you bounce back after a thorough challenge?
Perseverance. It’s about sticking with it. It’s about working hard and finding a way to finish what you started, no matter what tries to get in your way. The pleasure that comes from completing goals and achieving is great. Sometimes you have to dig deeper to do it than other times.
To persevere you have to organize yourself. It requires great time management, giving yourself regular breaks, finding a reward system to keep you pushing, and finding a way to overcome any challenge.
When you learn to persevere, you build confidence and improve your chances of future success.
As far as virtues go, patience might be the most famous, but perseverance is also a virtue. In that, it falls under the umbrella of courage. Courage helps you face adversity and exercise your will. With courage comes bravery, zest, honesty, and perseverance.
If you’re wondering how you can use perseverance, let’s look at some examples of it in action.
Imagine that you are dealing with a setback in a romantic relationship. You feel the need to pull back from the other person. Yet, perseverance would push you to address this situation directly and use it as a chance to push the relationship forward.
You are working on a big project at work and you’re doing your best to put in a good performance. You aren’t focused on the final outcome; you’re focused on channeling your efforts into improving your performance. You do so by setting goals, breaking them down into small, practical steps, and focusing on achieving each, to the best of your ability. All of this contributes to the bigger picture and helps you manage the challenge effectively.
The Research
According to research from the University of Pennsylvania, perseverance helps improve resourcefulness, skills, talents, and other character strengths
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251361245_Strengths_of_Character_and_Well-Being). This contributes to strong trust-building skills, which is a great foundation to build strong relationships, whether at work, romantically, or otherwise.
Trustworthiness is an incredibly important trait that many people will evaluate you on. Perseverance also helps build self-confidence, which is the general belief that you can accomplish what you want in life and do so effectively.
If you want to get to know your strength and build your perseverance, then you can start with a few key questions.
- When you persevere with a task, at what point do you feel engrossed by it and it no longer feels like a chore?
- What makes you give up?
- When you persevere and succeed, how does it impact your approach to later challenges?
Ultimately, when it boils down to it perseverance means pushing forward even when someone tries to hold you back. It means getting back up and dusting yourself off to go again even after being knocked down repeatedly. Perseverance means finding a way to keep going, no matter what life is trying to throw at you.