Perseverance

When you ask most successful people what their secret is many will say perseverance, they didn’t give up. That seems like common sense, but many of us do give up before we reach the finish line, or before the miracle happens, as they say. We may try, we may even try our best, but the trick to succeeding is doing our best indefinitely until we find that success or reach that goal, it’s the indefinite part where many of us fail. You see, there isn’t a published timeline for us to look at so we know just how long we’re going to have to keep doing our best with perhaps little or no results, we just have to keep doing it. I always say, if you can’t stop thinking about it, if it feels like a part of you would die if you stopped then keep going and trust that you are inspired to be on that path for a reason. Don’t stop. Now, there are times when we may have to make a decision, to keep going, try something else, or just let go, and sometimes therein lies the lesson, that may be the exact path we have set out on isn’t right for us, but another is, but it’s the ones with the perseverance that typically win, and right now, with the current state of things, we could all use some perseverance to get by.

Before walking this path I did have perseverance in my life, a lot of it, but I used it only for specific things. If it was a career goal I had it, if it was something material I wanted I had it, but if it was something to better my mental health I was quick to throw in the towel. Now, much of that was my head telling me lies and wanting me to fail, so the moment there was any set-back that negative chatter would start-up and would tell me to give up because I was just going to lose anyway. Most times I did and let those negative voices cheat me out of many good things in my life that I probably would have achieved had I just chose not to listen to them. I would start to do good things for myself but would keep the door open to be quickly talked out of going the whole distance to accomplish those goals. Part of that was so that I could keep the narrative going that I wasn’t a good person and that I didn’t deserve good things. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, me telling me myself I didn’t deserve to win and then throwing in the towel at the sign of resistance, but not doing the same for other things I worked for in my life. I got stuck in a cycle of believing what my head was telling me and then carrying those lies out while trying to do the next right thing, and until I got honest with myself, I kept doing that as my life slid down deeper and deeper into despair. When I finally made a commitment to get well I realized I needed to use that same perseverance I used for those other things in my life to help myself emotionally and once I did I started to see results, pretty quickly in fact.

We can’t always see the finish line, but if we give up we’ll never see it, we have to persevere despite the odds to continue going after what is best for us. We’ve all shown our perseverance in other areas of our lives, so why not practice it where it matters most, our emotional well-being, there will be good days and bad days but the day will come when you reach that goal or you hit a milestone that means a change in your life. Don’t give up, always keep fighting and you will win, even if it may seem like the smallest victory, it may turn out to be the moment when you actually won it all. SLAY on!

SLAY OF THE DAY: Would you say you have perseverance? Write out some examples of when you’ve had perseverance in your life and what the result was. Do you consistently have perseverance in your life? If not, what stops you? When have you failed to have perseverance in your life? Why do you think that is? What can you do to find perseverance in your life in those areas? What do you find most challenging about finding your perseverance? What can you do to find more of it in your life? Focus your perseverance toward things that are good for you and your life SLAYER, send that energy towards the things that will help you to be your best self and for the betterment of your life.

S – self  L – love A – appreciate Y – you