PERSISTENCE

 When you think you have done all you can, remember – “you thought”

This is a thought, life doesn’t happen in your thoughts, it isn’t what you think, it is a whole different realm. So, what you think might actually not be true, and guess what, in this case it is definitely not true.

The human potential is far more than your exhaustion limit. You might not realise it, but it is. Sooner or later, you will be more than what you are now, not realising the change because that will be a new normal for you.

It is like a muscle not exercised, the strength comes after the muscle is exercised, there is no way on earth to tap into that power without exercising the muscle, no one lifts maximum weights on the first day, the capacity develops gradually.

You can’t go to the first floor directly, you’ve got to climb each step, but what about the elevator!! Well, it’s the elevator of fate, sometimes it works, sometimes it malfunctions. You go in, you press the first-floor button, it will land you on the third floor, sometimes it won’t move, and sometimes it leads you to first floor but when the door opens, you see nothing but cars, and you say “this is not the first floor!”, the voice comes “Oh it is, it is the first-floor of the basement.”

So, it is not reliable, it can either let you touch the top floor or keep you rotting in the basement. The only known reliable way is the steps. you might not like it, it’s not the easier way, before climbing when you look at it, the voice inside your head says “What! Steps! No way” After taking the first step it says “Hey, look at the side, there’s the elevator, we don’t need to take the steps, you know”, after a couple of more steps, it says “Are you sure you want to do this?” When you are half-way there, it cries “This was a bad idea”.

After some more steps you will start feeling out of breath but guess what, the voice will start losing its power, it won’t stop nagging, but surely won’t tell you to climb all the way down and take the elevator. (P.S. If someone is still thinking to go down and take the elevator at that point, I recommend they do that, and I also recommend they go see a psychiatrist.)

And as you keep climbing, and you are almost there, the same voice will now say “come on, you’re almost there, you can do it, just a few more steps” now mind you this is the same voice which didn’t want you to climb the steps at all. This voice, it always looks for the easier path. So, what changed? How did it become negative to positive? How did it go from urging you to stop to pushing you to move? For starters, the voice didn’t change its nature, it is still suggesting you the easier path, the thing is that the easier path changed.

 At first, the voice questioned your decision to take the stairs (the tougher path), but you persisted, then it showed you an alternative (the elevator), but you persisted, then it told you it was a bad idea, but you persisted, after a while it stopped opposing and started pushing you up.
So once again, what changed? The path ahead became easier than the path behind. What led to that change? PERSISTENCE. And so, persistence is the key, whatever the situation may be, you can persist and pass through it. Where does persistence come from? It comes from belief that “you can do it”, these four words are important, they lead you to many places you want to go and help you in many things you want to do.

So, you’ve got to persist sometimes even if things are not going your way, even when you have easier looking options, even if you don’t want to do the thing that is assigned to you. How to define persistence? It is the price you pay for making a tough path easy. It is the price to change your inner dialogue from opposing you to pushing you. A useful commodity for being successful.

Steve Martin, the actor/comedian quotes it wonderfully, “Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent” which is as true as it gets. Some people are talented, naturally good at a job and some work hard as such that people think they are also naturally talented at the job.

Why is it important to be persistent? Because the mental dialogue will always suggest an easy path rather than a right path. There won’t be a problem if the easy path is the right one but in case if it is not, persistence is required. As the title of an old song goes “keep on keeping on”, that’s persistence, to keep on going, to have a made-up mind. As Swami Vivekanand would say, “Arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached”, that “not stopping” is persistence.

Persistence is also important because we don’t know what situation is coming up next, we have a plan to reach somewhere, but we don’t know what will happen on road, will there be a diversion, will there be a stop, etc., so what are we going to do once we face something unexpected! As Mark Edwards states “You can’t control the curveballs life throws you, so you have to learn how to control yourself and change quickly to make sure the curveball doesn’t knock you out.” And that happens with all of us on a daily basis, everything is going normal and suddenly we show up in a situation that is neither familiar nor expected, precisely as the famous quote goes “Life is less of what it throws at you and more of how you react to it.” which follows “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” but you’ve got to figure our how to make lemonade.

Persistence helps you by forcing you to figure out a way because you’ve closed the option of quitting. It sparks the question “What can I do?” & “How can I do it?” by closing the option “I can’t do it.”

Thus, by changing your thought, you can carve out a possibility.

May you persist and your stength never perish.

Written By,

Nihar Mehta

The NH Updater