Perseverance - Or Why Patience Isn’t The Only Important P Word
While catching up on my long-neglected feed reader this morning I came across this post from Antishay Ventenne about perseverance. And it resonated with me, for I may be very short on patience, but I do have more than my fair share of perseverance. When I was a child, I was called “stubborn” and “strong-willed” and two more true things may never have been said. But really, those are all just words for the trait of perseverance.
I’ve talked a lot in the past about how I don’t have a whole lot of patience - waiting is not something I am good at, in fact it makes me incredibly antsy and uncomfortable. I like to consider myself a thinker but when it really comes down to it, I’m a doer - I’d rather just jump in with both feet and then figure things out along the way. I’m a planner, but to me that is part of the act of doing, because you are making a plan which is, for me, doing something. I tend to plan while I go though, and constantly tweak and re-evaluate as I come up with more aspects I might not have considered. Not the most efficient method, by far, but as I said, I’m not long on patience.
Without patience, debt reduction may seem doomed to fail. For in the vast majority of cases, debt reduction is a long term commitment and if you aren’t patient, you may give up. But that is where perseverance comes into play. it may seem counter-intuitive, but even though I am not very patient, I am very good at sticking to something until its completion and not giving up, even in the face of obstacles and setbacks. To me, it is a whole different part of my personality - I might not be very good at waiting, but I can continue to make things happen and implement tweak after tweak to get to my end goal, even if it takes a long time. As long as I feel like I am doing something, it doesn’t feel like waiting as much as it feels like a long journey with an endpoint I am constantly aiming for. And that is all the difference.
When I left the first taekwondo school I trained at because my spouse took a job in another state, the instructors at the school gave me a parting gift - a framed inspirational poster on perseverance. Under the word perseverance and the picture of a bubbling stream, it has these words:
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins… not through strength, but through persistence.
It is meant to hang in my first studio someday, although for now it hangs in my house. And it really does sum up my philosophy on life - I don’t give up. My debt may try to evade me, but I’ll get rid of it all someday. Because I know how to persevere.
So if you are short on patience like I am, don’t despair! Start looking at the big picture with a new eye - be too stubborn to give up even when the road seems long. And remember that small victories along the way are still victories. Use those to find motivation when your patience seems to have all but worn thin. The endpoint isn’t the only milestone you can celebrate. My motivation lies in remembering all of the little things I’ve accomplished along the way and the obstacles I’ve overcome, even when the destination still seems far off. And keeping on even when the going seems tough is the essence of perseverance.
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June 18th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I just wanted to say that I really identified with this post. I am short on patience, but I will dig my heels in when I’m committed to something. I may tweak things a bit here and there just to keep myself preoccupied, but I’m in it for the long haul.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Your perseverance will benefit you as you live life…it has kept me going for the last 40 years of my adult life. If you persevere, you can surmount any obstacles that come your way and take pride that you have stayed the course and kept on.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Great post - without perseverance all the patience in the world won’t necessarily do you any good. Sometimes you need to persist at doing something rather than patiently wait for a change to happen. I really like that poster I might have to make myself one for my computer’s background image.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Keep the goal in sight, but enjoy the journey along the way.
Sometimes you just need little mental rewards - or something, like a photo or a spreadsheet, that you can physically look at - something that says, YES! you’ve come a long way ….look at all these important steps you have taken along the way.
I keep a journal just for putting my assets and financial net worth in once a year, sometimes twice. In the early years, it was exciting to see that I had made progress on the debt reduction. Now it is just to see how much the assets have grown.
I kept a photo journal of my house addition/remodeling - even tho I have been living in a construction zone, as I call it, for 15 months now, the photos remind me of how bad it was to start with and how far the house has come along - and actually, how little there is still to go. And I know it will all have to be done within 6 months, as I can’t get another extension on the building permit…kind of a governmental push there!
Keep track and receive those mental rewards!
June 19th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Great post! I really have trouble sometimes giving myself credit for the small things along the way. I like the idea Marci has about the spreadsheet. Perhaps if I start writing some goals down (broken down into steps of course), I’ll feel better about making progress.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Thanks for the link! You certainly have perseverance
July 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I have zero patience. I am trying to work on that. But, like you, when I decide I want to do something, I want to just go after it; attack it; get it DONE.
With debt, I have to keep telling myself, “It took me so many years to get here, it is going to take so many years to get out!” It is hard, but I am trying to keep the big, big picture out of my mind and focus on smaller pictures…. like “This month I pay $xx amount extra towards debts.”
That way, I can still be DOING something rather than having to be patient with the final outcome.