My Understanding Of What Perseverance Is
The act of persevering; persistence in anything undertaken; continued pursuit or prosecution is what is defined as perseverance in a dictionary. Most people would summarize it as not giving up. Although people have a good idea of the word perseverance I still feel like they do not understand the true power of this word. Perseverance is the ability to push limits never tested but is best defined by failure, determination, and faith.
I face perseverance every day in life with everything I do. I make the choice every day to keep working, putting in the time to push through whatever obstacle I’m faced with. I believe perseverance is the only difference between success and failure. As once said by Thomas Edison “Many of life’s failures are the people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Perseverance is the ability to forge ahead despite setbacks that threaten our path to success.
Failure is the lack of success, most people hate this word only because it means they didn’t succeed the way they wanted to. There is no shame in failing but accenting the fall and learning to get up. Nelson Mandella once said, “The greatest glory in living lies not in ever falling, but in rising every time you fall.” The essence of perseverance is getting up and giving it 100% knowing you’re the underdog, an outcast or the one that always falls just to short.
Perseverance is tough; it is not for the faint heart or the mentally weak. Determination isn't something seen, it cannot be measured. As said by Mark Twain “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog”. Determination can show how bad someone really wants something, will they fall and get back up or will they fall to their own failure. Perseverance isn’t just making goals and meeting them, it’s making goals that never stop pushing your limits until finally, you realize you were your only limit. No one decides how far you go, or what you can do. Perseverance has taught me that I am my worst enemy, no one is against me except for myself. Perseverance can’t be taught but is learned by an individual through themselves.
Lastly, perseverance will never work without faith. Faith is what picks me up after I fail. Faith is the only thing you have left when you have pushed, given it 112% for 600 hours in 25 days just to fall and lose it all to failure. When your body physically can’t work and your mind knows failure all to well, tell me what you have left? Are you the one that puts in the work for those 600 hours just to fail and then makes the excuse that you “ at least tried” because your too weak to try and let failure win again, or are you the one that put in those 600 hours, failed and laid on the ground thinking of how hard you’ll train next time knowing that failure is a possibility it’s just not going to stop you? This is having the faith to persevere, Catherine Pulsifer once said, “Faith is unseen but felt, faith is strength when we feel we have none, faith is hope when all seems lost”.
In conclusion, I hold a lot of meaning to the word perseverance it lets me know failure is only a defeat if you let it defeat you. Perseverance is the ability to pushed limits never tested, but is defined by failure, determination, and faith.
I have fallen down many times, I have cried and been disappointed within myself. I know the feeling of wanting something so bad only to fall short of reaching it, the thing with perseverance is right now I can’t have it but I will persevere until the one day I can.
