I Believe In Perseverance

I believe perseverance is the most important value, because determination at working hard regardless of the obstacles you must face, is key to a successful life. Life is not just a straight and narrow path, there will be hurdles to overcome, but how you decide to face your hurdle will be the stepping stones onto a new path with many more hurdles to maintain your goal. I have been put in countless situations where I had to choose to either persevere and benefit from it or choose the easy way out that might be rewarding in the short run, but can have negative effects in the future. In our society, it is taught at a young age that we should make goals and to stick to them until they are accomplished, for example, kids are often put in sports where they must face physical and mental obstacles to win. I set many goals while I played a variety of different sports but one, in particular, manifested into my key value of perseverance.

Even though my track career lived a short life, the beginning of that adventure had many obstacles that I had never had to figure out before. I started track in fourth grade and I did have a natural athleticism that made me a bit too arrogant. When I started track back up again in 5th grade I thought it would be a piece of cake when I learned I would go against middle schoolers. Showing up to the meet all I could see were these athletic girls that stood a head taller than me. My ego dropped significantly and then I felt the presence of intimidation. I was always a long-distance runner, but a 3000m is never easy breezy when you finish. My major run of the day was the 3000m and I tried to keep up with the other girls but slowly as I passed each lap I realized I took up all my energy in the first half of the run and now everyone would be passing me. One runner would pass me then another and then another. The disappointment I felt during the race made me want to quit but I knew that was not what an athlete does and I had to persevere through the physical and mental pain I was enduring to finish the race. My mind flipped through many thoughts that gave me plenty of reasons for why I should just quit right then and there. I can not exactly describe the feeling I received for an instant that knocked down all the negative possibilities. I realized that this pain I was enduring was not something I would have to deal with much longer and if I persevere I would be a lot happier with the outcome. My mindset shifted from wanting to get to the finish line then what it previously was focusing on which was stopping the race and giving up. The last few hundred feet were painful. I could feel a pain in my side kicking in, but was committed to the race. I focused on my breathing and keeping positive thoughts and doing that I persevered and crossed the finish line.

Perseverance is not an easy quality to preserve. It takes a lot of discipline to achieve. To achieve perseverance you need failure. Failure has a negative connotation to it, but it is a precursor to success. Experiencing failure is a hard task most people have to face, and it can often lead to frustration that shatters our self-confidence. It all depends on our mindsets. If we see failure as something we want to avoid we will shield ourselves away from the feeling of disappointment. This becomes devastating because we need to learn about it so it can help us do better the next time. We need to appreciate when we come across a negative roadblock on our journey to success because it teaches us how to solve situations and make us more independent.

A lot of well-known people value perseverance because without it they would have never gotten to where they are today. These people include but are not limited to Henry Ford when he filed bankruptcy five times from failed ventures, Vincent Van Gogh when almost none of his works made himself a living while he was alive, and when J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter pitch was rejected twelve times. None of these remarkable individuals would have made the impact they have on others without their determination that helped them persevere through the difficult times.

Values are important because they are the support system that stabilizes us while we grow and develop into the people we want to become while reflecting on our core beliefs. Even though we all have a collection of values, there is always one that functions as our compass to the people we aspire to be. Perseverance is the compass that takes us on a rollercoaster ride showing us all the twists and turns we must persevere through to get to the end of the ride where we achieve that goal. We do not persevere once in our lifetime, it is a skill we need that will pop up everywhere. We should be thankful for the chances we get that allows us to practice our core values which are to persevere through any obstacle.

Perseverance might be categorized as a character trait but it is much more than that. Perseverance is a standard of how you choose to live and follow by. It becomes a habit engraved into your mindset that increases the chance of accomplishing your goals. However, perseverance does not always mean that it has to correlate with a goal, but it does help you fight against the restraints that hold you back from change. I believe perseverance is key to maintaining our true selves while still thriving to benefit our future. Like what Calvin Coolidge said “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Persistence and determination are the components for perseverance. Our individuality come out through perseverance and that is why it is such an important value for so many.