Success Requires Persistence and Perseverance
The dreams and hopes we all have in life will never be realized by just waiting and hoping they’ll come true. It takes an effort on our part. If we are to accomplish anything we must be willing to accept the challenge of searching, waiting, trying, perhaps failing, and trying again. Success requires a constant effort, a perseverance every day of our lives. Yet too often we are willing to give up too easily – to leave the challenge for someone else.
Today’s modern living tends to make spectators of us rather than doers. It is much easier to watch a ballgame than to play in one, and it’s easier yet to watch it on television than attend it in person. In each case the rewards are less.
And so, it is with everything we do. It is easier to watch someone else bake a cake, or plant a garden, or climb a mountain than it is to do it or attempt it ourselves. But nothing in life can replace the thrill of accomplishment, or the satisfaction of knowing we met the challenge head-on and did our best.
When we do try, when we decide to do something, or set out to meet a challenge or opportunity, we need also to be aware that we may meet with early disappointment. And if we do, we need also to be aware tho t we can conquer it with persistence and perseverance.
That is not to say that there are not times when a challenge may be too big for us for one reason or another. Sidney Harris said, “… beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall.”1 But the greater danger is to give up too soon.
When we leave a task unfinished it gnaws at us from the inside. An unfinished diet, an unfinished book or unfinished work leaves us with an unfinished feeling and sometimes a fear to try again.
We owe it to ourselves to try every day of our lives to make our dreams come true. But it requires persistence and perseverance. As Carlyle said, “Every noble work is at first impossible. “2
1Sydney Justin Harris (Am. newspaper columnist)
2Thomas Carlyle
May 07, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,224