Perseverance

Perseverance is the backbone of all the successful men may he be from any country, region or from any walk of the life. God has created Man in such a way that whatever his goals might be to be a successful in any stage of his life provided he undergoes rigorous perseverance coupled with time management. God created Man, who is the cleverest of all the living organisms on Earth, the most selfish and cunning too. Behind every act of his perseverance, there is a satisfactory result. It is the golden rule to live a happy and successful life. There is a price for everything in this universe and that price can only be paid through our perseverance. God has given Mankind such tools and means in his life that he automatically inculcates the art of perseverance may he be a baby growing into a fully responsible young man, playwright, scientist, sculptor etc.

Perseverance is the secret of success. Without it, no great achievement is possible. Even if a person is not very talented, nor highly knowledgeable, but of an average merit, still he can succeed in life simply by his perseverance. Every action has its reaction. Therefore, hard labour yields results.

What is Perseverance?   

The word perseverance originates from Middle English, a combination of Old French and Latin word perseveratia.

Perseverant – abiding by strictly from the word persevarare.

Perseverance is the act of commitment, hard work, patience and endurance in doing a task, while facing all the difficulties calmly that too without any complaint and to keep on trying until the goal is reached coupled with time management.

Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached- Swami Vivekananda. This is the standard definition of perseverance.

Perseverance in Life

When a mother picks up her (us) newly born baby, she has to actually persevere the act of carefully lifting her baby (us) in her arms in her mind before actually lifting so that from that moment she is committed, to pay attention to work artistically so that the baby (us) is easily caressed with patience and endurance. Then as the baby grows older he has to work very hard with patience, endurance and commitment to himself that one day he (we) start crawling, then making attempts to stand up on his (our) feet and then eventually walking easily without his mother’s help. Then he (we) start recognizing our parents when we persevere to learn to speak Mummy and Daddy. Then the baby (we) start learning to play toys on his (our) own, eating, bathing, talking all with the aim that I have arisen and am very much awake and will keep trying until I have reached perfection. Then he goes to school wherein he perseveres hard to learn right from the alphabets to the calculus maths taught in the school. He (we) learns to be become ambitious and setup his own goals alongwith time management and strives to become the most brilliant student the school is proud of after his continous best results in examinations till 8^th standard. From 8^th to 12^th standard he starts focusing on his ultimate aims that what he wants to become in his life what hobbies he will keep doing lifetime, the pattern of studying, and what kind of friends he should hang out with and what tuition classes to join. From 8^th standard itself he starts standing up for himself and turns into a responsible young man and opines in the family matters too. And after college through his rigorous perseverance he becomes a successful actor, businessman, engineer, designer etc. Through his constant perverance he not only turns into a responsible young man but also responsible towards his society, friends, relatives and nation. 

Hence, God has given us the gift that the act is fully preserved in our mind and then we accomplish it to gain best results.  

Mukam karooti vachalam
Pangum langhayate girim
Yat krupa tamaham vande
Paramanandam Madhavam

God has bestowed upon us such strength that a dumb can become talkative and a lame can cross a mountain so we salute him and seek that He provides the will to commit patiently to work hard with endurance what is called PERSEVERANCE.

 Shakespeare did not compose such volumi­nous works just in a day. He had to work hard during days and nights with tremendous perseverance to create such great masterpieces.

The modern scientists, too, carry on their experiments day and night for years together in order to attain success. If one looks at his own life, he can very well understand that whatever he has so far gained, he has gained it only by his hard labour, and not by chance or magic, or by someone's grace.

The other example is of a sculptor. To whom a client comes and wants him to make a nice abstract form of his company’s logo which he wants to keep at the main entrance of his company and also a smaller version to display in his office. Let’s say the client comes in the middle of the month and end of the month he needs both the sculptures ready. Now there is commitment to word hard and patiently from both the sides to produce the best sculptures ever alongwith the management of time. Firstly, he will persevere the whole company’s logo in his mind, create a bank of knowledge of the fabric designer company through the client and then persevere 10-15 alternatives of the company’s logo alongwith a macket sketches. Lets us that the client liked the design number 10, because what the client has persevered in his mind is the replica of design 10. Then the actual scale of the logo is taken in 1:1 scale and the formwork is to be made. Then after the formwork is ready together client and the sculptor together persevere that what colour combinations and textures of fabrics are to be used. After that is persevered in the right direction then comes the actual making of the two models and that is done well within the time constraint too. Hence the two models are ready to be displayed on the inguration of the fabric company. If the sculptor gets his payment in time then all the goals are reached and everyone is happy. But if not the sculptor has to yet persevere and pursue the client to meet his financial payment as per the terms and conditions

Proverbs, Maxims and Quotations

      Failure is the path of least persistence

      All things will come round to him who will but wait

      Only those who have patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily

      Work hard, and give it your best shot; never be a quitter.

      Victory belongs to the most persevering.

      Hitch you wagon to a star.

      To persevere, trusting in what hopes he has, is courage to a man.

      Low aim not failure is a punishable offence.

      Many strokes overthrow the tallest trees.

      In Gujarati there is a saying “Man hoyt oj Maalve javaay.” In the olden days, people had no vehicles. To go from Surat to Marwar area in Rajasthan, used to be a task of perseverance.

Other examples on perseverance when we:

      Give up on our TV time to spend time writing a letter to an old friend

      Try a new sport that is very difficult but we do not give up.

      Run a marathon despite having a fracture in the right leg.

      Spend hours practicing on our music

      Have missed the school but we work hard to catch up

      Save money and make sacrifices to buy the latest iPhone

People who persevered despite handicaps and disabilities

      Beethoven (composer)-was deaf

      Albert Einstein (scientist)- had a learning disability

      Terry Fox (runner)-is an amputee with cancer

      Helen Keller-was deaf and blind

      Franklin D. Roosevelt (president)- was paralyzed with polio

      Vincent Van Gogh (artist)- was mentally ill.

      Marlee Matin (actress)-is deaf

How can we put perseverance into practice?

      When something starts to bother us, wait as long as we can before getting frustrated.

      When something does not work right, try again.

      Have patience when something upsets you so eventually you start finding the easiest solution to the problem.

      Always finish what you start.

      Focus on someone or something that ordinarily makes us lose our patience and try to understand it.

      Work a little harder or a few minutes longer on a task that we do not like.

      Keep working on a difficult task until we complete it with perfection

Cool ways to cope up with perseverance

      Face and accept the situations in our lives.

      Express our feeling.

      Write our feelings.

      Get help if we need help.

      Try to make it better.

      Take good care of ourselves.

      Learn and grow from our experiences.

Not so cool ways to cope up with perseverance

      Escape the problems.

      Blame ourselves.

      Blame other people.

      Blame chance.

      Blame other things like Astrology, Vastu Shastra or Janampatrika.

Activities

      Write in the journal about difficult situations and how we handled them without giving up.

      Write a poem about suffering, what we learnt from it, how to face it, how not to hurt others etc.

      Collect stories, poems, diaries and quotations by writers about persistence.

      Brainstorm cures for “the blues”.

      Learn what Galileo (famous astronomer) or other great personality endure opposition during his lifetime.

      Find out what help is there for people who face difficult situations- counselors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, therapists.

      Create a skit to depict what to do when disaster strikes.

      Explore the healing power of Music, Dance, exercise, pets etc.

      Put some extra effort in learning a tasks that are difficult and try to improve the skill.

Community Service

      Volunteer to work in the library, or a Non Governmental Organization, nature centre or in an animal shelter.

      Organize a campaign to promote good study habits in our school.

      Help with the recycling project at school and community.

Conclusion

Therefore, perseverance must be practiced from the very childhood so that the noble habit becomes a part and parcel of one's life. With that great asset or goodwill, a man can walk easily on the hazardous road of his life's journey; and success will be his and his only.

Books

Grades K-3

1)      Tortoise and the Hare - Aesop

2)     The Little Engine that Could - Piper

3)     The Little Red Hen

4)     Ginger Jumps - Ernst

5)     The Little Red Ant and the Great Big Crumb - Climo

6)     Gandhi - Fisher

Grades 3-6

1)      The Big Wave-Buck

2)     Call it Courage – Benett

3)     The Cay- Taylor

4)     The Diary of A Young Girl - Frank

5)     Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell

6)     Stone Fox – Gardiner