Contents
In this article we’ll be going over what persistence is, why it’s important, and how we can use it to lead happier, more fulfilling lives.
Anything we choose to do in life that we want to be successful and adept at will require that we spend a great deal of time refining that endeavor. During this process we’ll face obstacles no matter what it is that we’re pursuing. It’s very easy to face hindrances and decide to quit. In the face of barriers, we need to choose to persist, because as long as we do this, we will get through the hardships. This is why persistence is important. It’ll allow us to successfully get past hurdles and achieve our goals.
What is Persistence?
First let’s think about what it means to be persistent. When something or someone is persistent, it means they will continue in their course of action regardless of the challenges they’ll face. It means to be tenacious, unwilling to quit. The most important aspect of persistence, is to simply show up, even if you feel like you have nothing left, just to be there and give whatever amount your energy allows.
If we took any single thing in life that requires even a slight bit of effort, we’ll realize that to get to the point where we are comfortable doing it, we need to endure in some way.
We’ll need to endure our mental thoughts that’ll scream at us to do something easier and more comfortable, physical pain, difficulties which stop us dead in our tracks and make us feel anxious, afraid, and unsure to keep on going, or people projecting their toxicity and self deprecating mindsets onto us.
Procrastination
Ever wonder why we procrastinate or put off a task that we know we should be doing? It’s because we don’t want to endure the hardships that come with doing something uncomfortable. This is why it’s crucial to persist through these barriers. Once we choose to persist, it allows us to start.
The great thing about starting is realizing we had internally created this large monster we couldn’t overcome and once we begin we realize it’s not as bad as we thought it was and that monster was completely fabricated and inflated by our minds. In fact, we feel more confident and motivated because we overcame a hurdle. As a result, we generate this energy to keep going.
Habits are Formed as a Result of Persistence
People are creatures of habits. A study found that at least 40% of the things we do daily are through habits.
Whenever we repetitively do something over a period of time, we are in the process of forming a habit. This means in order to live an efficient life in which the majority of actions we take throughout the day are productive, then we need to have the quality of being persistent.
It’s impossible to build habits without being persistent.
Also, unlike motivation which is ephemeral and impermanent, you can actually count on persistence to get you to where you want to go.
How to Build Persistence
It’s crucial to understand how to persist. Persistence is a tool, characteristic, and a skill that can be improved upon. The first step in strengthening this quality is to first realize that whatever endeavor you have taken up that you want to persist in, in order to become good at it, build a habit, or work towards a goal, is that many days you will want to relax. Your mind will come up with excuses as to why you should “take a break” or maliciously justify why you should quit.
This will happen and it’s normal. You must fight this weak mindset. Anytime you hear it, you must resist any temptation to take respite, take a day off, or quit. These thoughts are generated from the part of the mind that’s in pain and very weak. It’ll say anything to make you stop.
Epictetus, an infamous Stoic philosopher had a saying that he wanted all his students to ardently memorize so they can use it when applicable.
“Two words should be committed to memory and obeyed by alternately exhorting and restraining ourselves, words that ensure we lead a mainly blameless and untroubled life. These two words were persist and resist.”
Epictetus
The amazing part is the more you persist, the less and less your mind will have negative thoughts about stopping or quitting. That’s because you’ve strengthened your mind against weakness by fighting it head on through persistence. You’ve build mental callouses.
Example of Applying Persistence
I decided to take up running last month. I made a choice I’d run 4 days a week, while deliberately pushing my limits after each week or progressively overloading by at least 10%. One day of the week, I’d push myself far beyond that to see what I’m capable of.
On week 1, since I was excited and motivated about starting a new regiment, it was easy. I worked out 4 days a week and was able to run the amount I had set for myself. There wasn’t much mental resistance.
Week 2, is when the thoughts began creeping in. First, I thought about how much easier it was to be in a warm home. I didn’t even want to think about physical exercise. A weak part of my mind wanted to just push the run off for “tomorrow.” If I wasn’t willing to do it today, then why would I do it tomorrow? I’d have even less reason to do it the next day, since I could’ve justified pushing it off for the same reason, until the habit and goal is no more.
It doesn’t help that the weather is inclement, so the part of my mind that didn’t want to deal with that pain was coming up with all kinds of excuses relating to this. “I’ll get sick.”, “Nobody else is out, I’m not normal for doing this.”, “It’s okay, I’ll just run tomorrow if the weather is better.”, or “It’s already dark and cold. Maybe running outside now is not such a great idea. I’ll just go tomorrow morning.”
These were some genuinely weak, pathetic, and absolutely irrational thoughts. I wasn’t going to stand for them. I observed them and did exactly as Epictetus advised, I resisted all temptations that tried to keep me from going and persisted. I showed up even when I felt tired, cold, and hungry.
I resisted the temptation to rest. I resisted the temptation to quit. I resisted the temptation to let what others are doing and thinking to stop me from pursuing my goal.
The courage that came from that genuinely increased my confidence and levels of contentment. It’s an internal reward that feels better than almost anything else I know of.
After applying persistence intentionally each time I chose to run, I no longer have these negative thoughts.
The use of persistence didn’t end there. I also had to use it when engaging in the activity of running itself. I set some rules when running, one of which is to never stop running no matter how much pain I’m in until I’ve hit the distance I’ve set for myself on that particular day.
I remember running one particular beautiful sunny morning and as I reached a long road near a school park that was on an incline, I wanted to slow down and stop. I thought about the fact that I wasn’t even close to half way done with my run. I imagined the exhaustion I was going to feel running up the incline road. I was thinking about how I was in a fasted state and my muscles had nothing to give. Additionally, I had no motivation to keep going. I felt mentally inert.
Despite all of these things trying to weigh me down and make me stop and be comfortable, I took an internal pause. I used my wisdom to think about how the ability to endure, persevere, and persist is fully under my control. I thought about how I told myself that no matter what, I won’t stop running, even if I feel like I’m dying, if running is the last thing I do, then so be it. Finally, I realized it’s under my ability to resist all of these weak thoughts and lies that the weak part of my mind is making up to keep it under its subjugation.
Due to this mindset, I just kept going. I focused on the present moment and practiced mindfulness. Instead of focusing on the end goal, I focused on the micro steps I’d have to take to reach my end destination. I kept going, bit by bit, until all those small little chunks I focused on was the accumulation of my whole run.
That’s when I realized that persistence is crucial. When we think our tank is at a 100%, it’s likely we haven’t even hit 30%.
I learned persistence allows us to open up to our true potential.
Benefits of Persistence
One of the benefits of persistence is it allows you to see the true nature of a task. When people have something to do that they’re averse to, their mind feels mental pain in many different forms and this is why we end up doing everything else besides that endeavor. In other words, it’s why we procrastinate. By persisting, or taking action regardless of the challenge or difficulty which is the mental pain, we realize it was completely senseless putting off the task. You realize it wasn’t all that you made it out to be.
This leads to the next benefit of persistence which is increased confidence. By confronting something the psyche considered formidable, working through it, and completing it, levels of confidence rise because you gain insight on your true capabilities.
Another benefit of persistence, is decreased negative feelings and emotions. Feelings such as stress, anxiety, sadness, depression, and the alike are reduced by applying persistence.
This naturally happens because a lot of the stress or anxiety we feel is because of the weight of the things we are supposed to do that we don’t attend to or doing tasks half-heartedly. By persisting, we take action and resist temptations to quit, rest, or slack off. In turn the weight will be reduced and we won’t feel as bad as we did. Mixed in with the positive feelings from starting or achieving a task such as joy, excitement, happiness, increased confidence, peace, relief, gratefulness, hope, or optimism, it starts a healing process by shifting our old destructive, weak, and irrational patterns of thoughts.
Persistence is needed to build habits. In order to lead successful and meaningful lives, we have to build habits centered around our goals. In order to effectively ingrain habits into our daily lives, we have to repeat them incessantly until neural networks associated with the habits are build within our brain so they become reflexive. According to research, this process takes approximately 66 days.
Additionally, we only have to rely on persistence for a specific venture until the period in which the behavior is self regulated. After this, the behavior becomes easy to do.
This means by using persistence we can reshape our entire lives. We can change our identities and become the person we strive to be.
Since persistence is a skill, it transfers to everything else or applies to anything we pursue. The more we persist, the easier barriers of all type become. I can use the same thought process of persisting from one venture to another.
The persistence I used for running, was also used for another habit of writing. I already knew the challenges I was going to face and since my mind was strengthened from overcoming difficulties during running and other pursuits, persistence itself becomes a habit that’s effortless. Hard things don’t phase me anymore. I’ve already overcome them and I’m confident in my ability to continue doing so.
Things You Can Apply Persistence to
Persistence can be applied to actions that require striving. Here a list of some things in which one can use persistence.
1. Running. My example of how I used persistence with this undertaking explains how.
2. Cleaning Dishes. This is a mundane task that lacks excitement. You can generate internal motivation by telling yourself you will persist and act regardless of the monotony associated with cleaning dishes.
3. Reading. Let yourself know at one point you will love reading as long as you continue to push past barriers. Based on the science of how dopamine and internally generated rewards that come from a state of effort, it will happen. It just takes some time and patience.
4. Drawing. Lots of people want to get good at art and drawing. It takes time and consistence. Therefore, it’s crucial to apply persistence.
5. Playing an Instrument. Learning any instrument will take patience as you have to learn theory as well as the instrument itself. Continue to persist and you’ll see the fruits of your labor.
6. Rock Climbing. You’ll deal with lots of chafing and even falling, but with time your body builds callouses and you learn little things overtime to keep you from falling.
7. Fixing A Bad Sleep Schedule. It can be difficult to fix a sleep schedule that’s been broken over a long period of time, but it’s possible to fix within a week if persistence is applied to it.
7. Walking. Some of us have to learn to walk all over in life again due to catastrophes and injuries. Keep trying, be tenacious, keep your head up, persist, and resist everything the weak part of your mind tries to throw you.
8. Learning a New Language. This one will require true dedication as it will take a long time to learn a new language, therefore persistence is crucial.
9. Negative Mindset. Whenever you feel down, sad, lonely, frightened, beat down, and negative in any form, persist through this and resist any temptations to indulge those thoughts. While you persist through this hard time, find something to work on and transfer your energy into that one endeavor. Let it be something that motivates and interests you.
10. Meditation. Sitting and doing “nothing” will require lots of self control from keeping yourself from quitting right in the middle of a session. Persistence is crucial while meditating. For the repetition of the practice and during as well.
11. Dieting. It’s tough to diet especially when we have an abundance of foods filled with sugar, salt, and fat everywhere we turn. With persistence though, we can reach our goals. We just have to try and keep going.
12. Pain. It is possible to persist through pain, whether it be mental or physical. Let yourself know that objectively pain is neither good nor bad, it’s just pain and it’s impermanent.
13. Studying. There can initially be a mental aversion that comes from the thought of having to study or studying for long periods of time. It’s under your control to persist through this and resist the temptation to stop or procrastinate.
Inspirational Examples of Persistence
Dorian Yates
This interview between Patrick Bet-David and Dorian Yates. We learn about how Dorian Yates was able to win the Mr.Olympia title 6 times in a row and the mindset needed in order to be the best.
At 21:50 Dorian Yates talks about being an 11 year old and taking part in a charity run event. He vowed to himself he will keep going no matter what. He claims he was tenacious and had focus. When all the kids and parents left, it was just him and his teacher. His teacher had to stop him because of how late it was. His drive initially came from beating his rivals, but something else was inside him that wouldn’t let him quit. It was drive and persistence.
This drive, focus, tenacity, and willing to persist followed Dorian Yates as he grew older. This mentality made him a formidable and feared opponent. During his interview, he talks about men who could’ve beat him if they worked as hard as him due to genetics. These same men, spoke about how intimidating Dorian Yates was and how they knew he was impossible to beat.
David Goggins
David Goggins is a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, Air Force Tactical Controller, ultra marathon runner, among another things.
In his book, Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, he speaks about a point in his life where he was fat, unmotivated, and weak in the mind.
It was when he serendipitously saw a documentary of a Navy SEAL BUD/s group going through boot camp playing on television that lit up something within him. He knew he wanted to be a Navy SEAL and the prestige that came with it that instant. More so, he was astounded at how these men were willing to persevere through such grueling tasks, especially the HELL week portion of BUD/s training.
He understood how hard he’d have to work to even get invited to the boot camp through a recruiter. Using focus, tenacity and persistence, he lost over 100 pounds in a short 3 months, all while running, swimming, and making sure he can do lots of push ups and pull ups with ease.
David Goggins was relentless and unwilling to quit, which is why he was invited and completed BUD/s at the top of his class exemplifying great work ethic and extraordinary fortitude. Hallmarks of an excellent leader.
There are a plethora of instances in which he speaks about his willing to persist in his book. The one that stands out is when he entered his first ever 100 mile race. He hadn’t prepared, he just decided he wanted to do it.
His mind begged him to stop especially when he thought about how much more he had to keep going and worries about his health.
He was peeing blood, had diarrhea, the skin on his toes were bleeding and ripping off, the smaller bones in his feet were broken, and his shins were fractured.
Despite all of this he persisted, persevered, and didn’t quit. He used his wisdom, his ability to reason, and resourcefulness to continue through the 100 mile race. He wrapped compression tape around his fractured shins to decrease the level of pain he felt and he finished the race.
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor. He wrote the book Man’s Search for Meaning, where he speaks about his time as a Jewish person during the rise of the SS and Nazis in Europe. More importantly, he writes about how to overcome the toughest situations, no matter how grim or bleak, and to find meaning from these situations.
In a recount during his time at Auschwitz his body was languishing, it was eating itself from having practically nothing to eat. The weather was inclement and incredibly cold while not having any jacket. At the same time, he developed typhoid fever. Despite all of this, he used his mind to persevere through these arduous challenges. Many were giving into suicide, but he wouldn’t.
This book was very touching. I almost felt like Viktor Frankl’s shadow, with how he wrote and described the hardships he faced at the concentration camps. I recommend everyone to read this book. It’ll help gain a better perception of life, lead to gratefulness, insight, and greater empathy.
Final Thoughts
In this life, no matter who we are, we will face difficulties. These hardships could stem from fate or as a result of trying to achieve something. It’s up to us how we deal to get through these hurdles. One of the most useful traits we can use in battling adversity is persistence.
Persistence, the act of continuing despite the impossibility of a task will be needed because during an endeavor, one will want to take a break, quit, or give up. It’s up to us to persevere through these thoughts and keep going.
The amazing part about practicing persistence is the more it’s used, the stronger our mind becomes. Our minds armor increases in strength. We are able to handle calamities in multiple situations and we become more versatile in this skill.
Persistence is like a muscle, the more it’s used, the better it becomes. Life becomes better and it’s easier to adhere to a system you set for yourself.
There will always exist obstructions, therefore it’s important to have an apt tool to use when combating them.
“Behind mountains are more mountains.”
Haitian Proverb
References
- Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of ‘habit-formation’ and general practice. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(605), 664–666. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466
- Society for Personality and Social Psychology. (2014, August 8). How we form habits, change existing ones. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140808111931.htm