Perseverance is defined by The Britannica Dictionary as the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult. To achieve any remarkable success whether personal, professional or academic, you must be able to persevere through difficult times in order to overcome any obstacle that you might encounter in pursuing your goal. To have more perseverance you must always remember the purpose behind your goal and be able to deal with any disappointment that might arise in your quest to achieving the goal.
First and foremost, remembering the purpose behind your goal is a major driving force to having more perseverance. In his January 2024 article titled “The Purpose Perseverance Cycle” from theperseveranceproject.com, Deacon Brad Watkins, the Academic Headmaster of St. Thomas More Academy re-echoed The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas of 1920 when he identified the “dynamic relationship between a sense of purpose and the virtue of perseverance” as what seems to meaningfully underpin enduring through challenges and the successful pursuit of aspirations. He further added that, “At its core, purpose provides us with the spark that gets us going and keeps us on the path to a desired long-term outcome.” As a matter of fact, the journey towards every purposeful goal is rarely, if ever free from obstacles and setbacks. But having a clear purpose of your goal provides the fuel to having more perseverance as you encounter these obstacles and setbacks.
Secondly, being able to deal with disappointment is a vital quality needed in other to have more perseverance. In a January, 2018 article published on Harvard Business Review (hbr.org) titled, “Dealing with Disappointment”, Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, A Professor of Leadership and Developmental Change stated that when pursuing your set goals, “disappointments are inevitable, and how we cope with them is often a defining moment in our lives.” He further explained that, “How we respond to disappointment is often influenced by our upbringing; some people seek to avoid disappointment by underachieving (setting their expectations permanently low) while others seek to avoid it by overachieving (setting their expectations unattainably high). Regardless of which way we lean, we can learn to respond healthily to disappointment by adopting a coping style that seeks to understand what happened, checks whether our expectations were reasonable, reevaluates our perceptions and behaviors, and seeks positive solutions instead of dwelling on the past”. Your ability to deal with disappointment such learning from them and moving forward with a growth mindset is a very important step towards having more perseverance.
Undoubtedly, achieving your set goal requires some level of perseverance, and the strength to overcome all the obstacles lies in remembering the purpose behind the goal and your ability to deal with disappointments to avoid being consumed by those obstacles.
An Essay submitted on May 27, 2024 by Othuke Andrew Akpeli to BYU-Pathway Worldwide for PCI 101: Life Skills.
