How persistence is the key to life

Persistence is a very important trait in life, but why is it exactly? For starters, any hobbies you may have at one time required a lot of persistence in order for you to enjoy it. For example, I personally enjoy art and initially I was absolutely terrible at it. However with a lot of persistence over the years I managed to draw at what I believe a good level. While I don’t have this hobby anymore, I needed that persistence to make way into other things such as, school, sports,  and exercise. The point I’m trying to make is that you need persistence throughout your life for everything. I didn’t think I needed to force myself to do anything, that is until, I found myself going back to school, after taking a very long break. Looking back now, I saw a few key things that make persistence what it is, for example, motivation, positivity, and even failure are what I believe, are key parts to persistence.

 

Motivation is essential to persistence, simply because what are you persistent about exactly? What is your drive, your goal? One thing you may think about once you’re out of high school might be, for example, what is my goal? Some could say, “I’m going to be a doctor”. A doctor would be a huge indication of motivation and persistence. Six long years of schooling at minimum, and that long term of persistence of doing your best with your degree so you can become a doctor one day. As stated from stateuniversity.com, “Motivation is also the study of what pushes or pulls an individual to start, direct, sustain, and finally end an activity” (1). A personal motivation I’ve had lately, is forcing myself going to the gym, two to three times a week. I have been forcing myself to run at least 1 mile, everyday minimum, along with other exercises, such as, squats, push ups and various other ones, depending on what I’ve accomplished that week.

 

I believe positivity is also another factor in determining persistence. How could anyone be persistent about something while kicking your feet along the way? Persistence is about having an optimistic attitude for whatever you goal may be. Positivity can also link to another part of persistence, which is motivation as I mentioned earlier. If you cannot be motivation and a positive attitude in your goals you are doomed for failure before you even begin. As Dominic Randolph mentioned in his article of the NY times about teaching good character in students. “When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that”(1). This could mean that without a positive outlook on things, a student could be overcome with doubt and stop their drive to be persistent about his or her career.

 

Another key to persistence is failure, without failure you cannot learn from your mistakes. You can only learn so much from a textbook, you need to go out in life and experience everything you can. For example, you could be going after a job you really want and have to the essential credentials and then some on your resume. However if you can’t just “Wow” that employer you’re not going to get that job you so badly. This is a lesson in life failure, which in turn you can take a look of what happened, figure out how you could improve what you did and said during the interview and improve your chances for next time. As Jennie Rose mentioned on her blog wall, a book called How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by author Paul Tough stated “Critics have argued that what tough is really talking about are life skills that can’t be taught.” (1). Showing that failure has to be learned from, and that persistence is a life skill that cannot be taught through traditional means.
In conclusion, I believe that their is quite a few things that make persistence what is it. Again, motivation, positivity, and failure are just a few of many things, that can make persistence, such a important aspect to anyone’s life. Persistence is defenitly a learned trait however, because sometimes you just need to pick yourself up, from whatever is holding you back and push yourself forward to your goal.

 

The New York Times, inc. The New York Times. 2011. Web. 14 September 2011.

Blogs.org, inc. Blogs.org.  2012. Web. 27 July  2012.

One thought on “How persistence is the key to life

  1. As I’m sure you know, the main issue here is lack of development. You do have the beginnings of something here, though! The most obvious way to develop this is to expand on this sentence: “persistence to make way into other things such as, school, sports, and exercise” Thus, your question would be how does persistence help a person in various parts of his/her life? It’s a basic question, but maybe you could look at comparison/contrast of types of persistence necessary in various aspects of life.

    Again, the most obvious way to develop this would be to start with a general intro (with maybe a sharp example or two of persistence in your own life) and then to develop a body para each for school work, relationships, whatever.

    Remember that you need to use some info from one of the sources I provided, as well as at least two of student blogs. (And use in-text citation and a Works Cited page for the sources.)

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