Why Everyone Needs Perseverance & What Does It Mean To Have It
Perseverance means different things to different people. However, there is an underlying essence common to all definitions of the concept: regardless of the place or time. That essence is an unwavering doggedness in the pursuit of a purpose, action, goal, or mission. Perseverance is simply the act of persevering in the face of difficulty.
Perseverance is a crucial aspect of our existence because few things worthy of note have been achieved without perseverance. That is why everyone who wants to be someone needs a healthy dose of perseverance. Later in the article, we will be looking at the experiences of certain people who achieved greatness because they persevered. In the meantime, here are some benefits of perseverance.
5 Benefits of Having Perseverance
Here are some benefits to be had from having perseverance
1. It Helps You Grow
It’s one thing to have dreams and aspirations for growth and all that. It's another thing to take action needed. It is yet another thing to stay the course after taking action. Perseverance allows you to do all that is required to make the dreams in your mind become the reality that you live. It helps you to grow and reach your full potential as a person. When you stick to a goal in spite of the difficulties involved, you grow as a person because you get to see what you are truly capable of.
2. Perseverance Gives You Strength
Perseverance lets you build a strong mentality that carries you through any difficulty you might face in the pursuit of your goals. When you are able to go through challenging situations, you develop a mental strength that lets you see failure as part of the process of success. Instead of being scared of failure, perseverance gives you the strength to welcome and expect it.
3. With Perseverance Failures Become Opportunities to Learn
Perseverance makes you see failure as an opportunity to learn. People who persevere are not scared of failure. Instead, they see it as means of learning things they didn't know. When you persevere, you see failure as a source of valuable insights because, in your mind, failure is about lessons and learning, not mistakes and letdowns.
4. Perseverance Lets You Succeed At Whatever You Set Out To Do
To attain success in the face of difficulties, you will need some resilience and grit. That is exactly what perseverance means. Ten times out of ten, people who persevere never really fail. They believe that even if they don't succeed at attaining the goal, they have succeeded at learning some valuable lessons. So it's a win-win situation.
5. You Become a Sources of Inspiration
When you persevere and get that pot of gold, you become a source of inspiration to people who are struggling with one challenge or the other. Your experiences become a spring of inspiration since you are living proof of what perseverance does. Heck, you have had to draw some inspiration from someone else's story at one point in your life. Speaking of which, we will be looking at some real-illustrations of the power of perseverance next.
Real-Life Illustrations of the Importance of Perseverance
Perseverance is not some abstract ideal that we should all aspire to. Instead, it is something that we should incorporate into our daily existence. Let's look at some people who etched their names in various fields of endeavor. They all have one thing in common: perseverance. These real-life illustrations are taken from different disciplines, so you don't have any excuse not to persevere.
Science
Let’s start with the man credited with the invention of the light bulb. His name was Thomas Edison, and he was a really great inventor whose life is a lesson in the importance of perseverance. Edison went through at least 9,000 experiments before coming up with the light bulb, which would change the world decades later.
Imagine the time, effort, frustration, confusion, and a host of other negative thoughts Edison had to face in carrying out 9,000 plus experiments? Despite all that, Edison had one thing that most of us lack: perseverance. It was his perseverance that kept him going. It gave him the mental strength to see each failed experiment as an opportunity to learn. So when people tried to question his doggedness after so many "failed," experiments, Edison's words are timeless and should be etched in our minds:
“Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! I know several thousand things that won't work!”
Politics
Running for the post of President of the United States can be tasking: physically, financially, mentally, and emotionally, to say the least. The 37th President of the United States didn’t just walk into the White House and got sworn in. No! The man the world knew as Richard Nixon had a history of humiliating political defeats. One of his defeats was so bad that he came up with the famous quote:
“You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”
Interestingly after a few more defeats several years later, Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States in 1968, eight years after his famous quote. Nixon did not let his defeats deter him. Instead, he persevered and achieved his dream in the end!
Takeaway
We all need perseverance to etch our names on the canvass of life. Easier said than done because the said canvas is tougher than nails. Thankfully, there is nothing that you can't achieve with a healthy dose of perseverance.
