PERSEVERE

“Perseverance Cultivates Purposefulness and Boosts Resilience”

When I was a teenager, I loved full-contact sports. Especially boxing, martial arts, and wrestling. I would train day and night, practice every little detail of what I had learned that day or week until I felt that I had mastered it. While other kids my age went out playing and goofing off, I would spend hours in our backyard practicing, practicing, and practicing.

Because of this determination to work hard and work through my own personal weaknesses and struggles, I was able to find a power within me that gave me the Drive to work hard when I decided to go after a goal or something I wanted to obtain.

We know this concept as Perseverance. So then, what is it exactly? If you were to look it up, the term refers to people ability to pursue a goal or passion over time, and stick with it if they encounter obstacles or setbacks.

To clarify what perseverance is, let's define it as “Finishing what you start; continuing in a course of action despite obstacles; getting it out the door; taking pleasure in completing tasks.”

Now I have a question for you that you may have not thought of. What is the difference between perseverance and persistence?

They do kind of sound the same. Persistence is the choice to continue something, in spite of difficulty and opposition, and struggle to achieve that goal. Perseverance is the continuation of commitment through action in spite of the lack of success. It is also the ability to overcome the repetitiveness of problems from difficult situations.

Persistence is used in the sense of "stubborn" (obstinate). There could be a slight negative connotation, kind of like when a telemarketer won't stop calling you. Perseverance is used when the purpose is good. That is, you're doing something to help someone, or to achieve a desirable goal, such as climbing Mt. Everest.

Depending on how you feel on something, you could use perseverance/persistence. For example, the telemarketer calling you, could annoy you, and you could call him "obstinately persistent". However, to the marketer, you might be simply to them, a tough customer, and in their own eyes they are bravely perseverant in trying to persuade this tough customer.

In other words, it gives a different "feel" about the thing described. It is a matter of perception. This means that our behaviors or actions can be perceived differently from our own. And it is why, you will see the importance of Mindfulness in Perseverance.

Perseverance is closely related to a range of other concepts including resilience, motivation, drive, determination, grit, passion, and conscientiousness. Here is what is most empowering about this. People who refuse to give up on achieving specific goals and approach challenges with a positive outlook have been documented to be at lower risk of clinical depression (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and panic disorder (PD).

Now before I go any further, you will hear me use the term Mental Health. Do not make this term a stigma. When I use the term mental health, it is just that. The health of one's own mental capacity. It's about one's own mental well-being. Nothing more, nothing less. According to a May 2019 published report, of 3,294 adults who were studied for almost two decades starting in the mid-1990s. During each evaluation, study participants filled out scale-based questionnaires designed to rate their degree of goal persistence (e.g., "When I encounter problems, I don't give up until I solve them"), self-mastery (e.g., "I can do just about anything I set my mind to"), and positive reappraisal (e.g., "I can find something positive, even in the worst situations").

Notably, participants who showed more robust goal persistence and higher degrees of "looking on the bright side" from the time of their first assessment in the mid-1990s also experienced lower rates of depression, anxiety, and panic disorders across the 18-year span of the study, according to the authors. Resolute "goal persistence" along with using an explanatory style called "positive reframing" to find silver-linings in potentially dire situations, appear to be a winning combination for keeping a wide range of mental health issues at bay.

"Perseverance cultivates a sense of purposefulness that can create resilience against or decrease current levels of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder."

"Looking on the bright side of unfortunate events has the same effect because people feel that life is meaningful, understandable, and manageable."

Depression, anxiety, and panic disorders are common among many people today. In fact, they can be chronic and debilitating and put a person's physical health and livelihood at risk. Often, people with these are stuck in a cycle of negative thought patterns and behaviors that can make them feel worse. Today's breakthroughs in both medicine and science have made it possible for us to be more aware of these kind of disorders, or to better put it, disruptions in our lives mentally.

Remember when I said earlier that Mindfulness is important in Perseverance, this is why. Take for example self-mastery, that study I spoke of showed that it didn't appear to correlate directly with mental health outcomes. This is most likely because the participants, on average, didn't show any changes in their use of self-mastery over time. So why is this important? Because, self-mastery is a relatively stable part of a person's character that does not easily change.

So what is self-mastery and why is it important to this series on Perseverance? To simply put it, Self-mastery is being in control of the internal thought processes that guide your emotions, habits, and behaviors.

It's the ability to respond rather than react. The former is done with intention and awareness, the latter is visceral and without reason. Here's an example of what I mean. Have you ever said something you wished you hadn't said, or deeply wish you could go and take it back. If so, then you reacted as opposed to responded.

Self-mastery is key to wanting to make changes in your life. However, in order to do this, one must be mindful of their own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. And if you truly wish to see your life change, I you want to understand how to persevere life's twists-and-turns, then understanding self-mastery is key to this.

We could say that goal-directed perseverance is a type of "secret sauce" for one's mental health and overall success in life.

Tolerating challenges toward goal attainment leads to steeper decreases in areas of stress, depression, and anxiety because it enhanced willingness to metaphorically 'roll with the punches.' In doing so, you are less likely to be gridlocked by future-focused worry or past-centered ruminative brooding that feeds into pseudo-problem solving tendencies. Instead, tenacious goal pursuits can foster effective problem-solving approaches as you become more mindful of how your daily affairs, actions, and habits are instrumental in achieving your goals or dreams.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture that really defines what this all means is in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 10:39 it says, “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

Faith and salvation take perseverance. These are not things that just happen, or just exist when we say some kind of prayer. In fact, faith is better understood by the phrase faithfulness. It's about taking action, not simply having an ideal or internal belief about what someone says. Faith is about commitment, dedication, and adherence to doing what we say we are going to do.

In all honesty, faith begins with a mindfulness of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Many people in our world today have said that they've quote, "Lost faith in the church." Why? Could it be because what they say is not in line with what they do?

If we wish to see people quote saved, then we must become mindful of what salvation is in our own lives and not focus on how it is not active in others. How can I expect someone to help pull me up out of a hole, if they are not able to pull themselves up?

Would you or I really listen to someone tells us about how to be financial stable and successful if they were not doing this in their own lives? OF COURSE NOT....Then why would someone listen to me speak or teach on loving one's neighbor if I am not doing this very concept in my own life. In other words, if I am not being persistent with living our my own life the exemplifies a lifestyle of walking in love with others. It doesn't make sense does it.

I want to give you five-items of what I call "Persistence in Goal-Striving Scale" that is used to measure goal persistence and perseverance on a four-point scale ranging from "not at all" to "a lot."

How would you respond to these five prompts on a 1-4 scale?

1. When things don't go according to my plans, my motto is, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

2. When faced with a bad situation, I do what I can do to change it for the better.

3. Even when I feel I have too much to do, I find a way to get it all done.

4. When I encounter problems, I don't give up until I solve them.

5. I rarely give up on something I am doing, even when things get tough.

Next are a four-item "Positive Reappraisal Scale" you can use to assess positive reappraisal (i.e., positive reframing). These items are also rated on a four-point scale ranging from "not at all" to "a lot."

How would you respond to these four prompts on a scale of 1-4?

1. I usually learn something meaningful from a difficult situation.

2. When I am faced with a bad situation, it helps to find a different way of looking at things.

3. Even when everything seems to be going wrong, I can usually find a bright side to the situation.

4. I can find something positive, even in the worst situations.

There have been many examples of what Perseverance looks like. One of my favorite one's is the example of Muhammad Ali who famously said, "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

Muhammad Ali also said, "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."

When you become mindful of your own perseverance and self-mastery, you will truly begin to live an Empowered Life.

Join me next week as I'll share with you some strategies to help in self-regulation in order to persevere.

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