Showing Perseverance When Giving Up Seems To Be The More Popular Choice
“By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:19)
With the advance of modern technology, it seems that getting rid of something when we feel that it can’t be fixed anymore has become the trend. I remember when my first laptop got infected with an annoying virus. I discovered that my computer had a feature that lets me reformat it with a few clicks of a button. To get rid of the virus, I reformatted my laptop.
We sometimes think that life is like a computer. When a virus invades it, we can just click a few buttons and “reformat” it. We shy away from hardships, and instead of enduring, we either find a way to escape, or worse, we simply give up. Unfortunately, we can’t really get rid of our troubles that way. We can’t just delete them. Sooner or later, they will simply catch up on us.
In his book How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci, author Michael J. Gelb highlights one of Da Vinci’s values that contributed to his genius. Gelb refers to it as grit, or the ability or willingness to embrace uncertainties, ambiguities, and paradoxes in life. He proposes that one of the things that make Da Vinci the great mind that he was was his phenomenal ability to hold together the tension of opposites.
Grit is also referred to as perseverance, or the ability to continue pursuing a future goal over a long period of time without giving up. In this day and age, I believe that if there’s one trait that we should possess, it’s perseverance.
How Do We Develop Perseverance?
The good news is that perseverance is not something that we human beings are born with, which means we can do something to develop it within us. Here are five ways you can train yourself to become more persevering.
Decide To Have A Positive Outlook
You have two choices when you wake up in the morning: to be optimistic or pessimistic. If you want to begin developing perseverance in your life, you have to make a decision of choosing to be positive the moment you get out of bed to start your day.
Try Something New
One of the reasons many people give up easily in life is that they have not been used to doing something they’re uncomfortable with. By getting out of your comfort zone—such as joining an extracurricular activity in school or volunteering in the community—you can build the perseverance to struggle with difficult situations. And as you continue to broaden your experiences, you will be more comfortable facing new challenges as they come your way.
Remember A Past Event When You Practiced Perseverance
Take time to remember events in your life when you encountered something challenging and you succeeded. Remind yourself that you are where you are in your life right now because at some point in the past, you have not given up on a difficult situation. Remember when you tried so hard to learn to play the guitar and was able to do it with a few weeks of practice. Remember, too, when your boss gave you a very difficult task, and yet you were able to complete it before the deadline.
Establish Consistent Habits
It takes several small steps to develop a trait like perseverance. As you make it a habit of not giving up when difficulties arise, sooner or later, your efforts will pay off.
Surround Yourself With Persevering People
Perseverance can also be acquired. If you want to be a person who doesn’t give up easily in life, choose wisely the people you surround yourself with. You don’t want to be around a person who always chooses the easy way out. You would want to be with someone who knows not only how to endure, but also motivates you to follow through until you achieve your goals.
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