Posts by Pat:
Should we persist or persevere?
Most of us use persistence and perseverance interchangeably and, although they are very similar in a lot of ways, there are a few suble differences that can have massive effects on the outcome of our situation.
Perhaps you have a job you hate or are in a relationship that just isn’t working out. You put your head down and continue to hold yourself accountable and remain loyal to that job/partner regardless of how miserable you feel.
After all, you committed and you give nothing less than 100% so the payout will come eventually. Won’t it?
You keep expecting some return on your investment but, alas, nothing comes but pain, frustration, and resentment. And yet you don’t think you can quit after putting in all that time and energy. That would be tragic, wouldn’t it?
So you persist and persist, ignoring that little voice telling you to get out while you still have time to actually live.
Persistence vs. Perseverance
Persistence can be your undoing if you’re not careful. The illusion that persisting is always a virtue has caused folks to stay in relationships with people they don’t respect, put up with jobs they hate, and generally just continue to perform the same painful actions over and over again, in hopes that it might get better.
We can think about persistence as mindless pursuing of a cause for the sake of the pursuit. It always has a time limit where going on just doesn’t make sense.
How many times are we going to keep trying before we give up? Haven’t we each found that beating our head against the wall only stops hurting when we stop? (And maybe we would find that there is a door that we didn’t see because we were so busy beating our head against the wall.)
Perseverance, on the other hand, is almost never a bad thing. When we persevere, we’re not stubborn or illogically resolute; we’re calm, steady, and focused.
Perseverance in the name of a clear goal never has a time limit. People have dedicated their entire life to a cause they believe in, even when it seems hopeless; even when they meet obstacle after obstacle. I know I’m grateful that folks are persevering on looking for a cure for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease!
I think it’s a good idea for us to take time to see where we want to persevere and also where persistence is causing us to stay stuck.
We can allow awareness to unfold.
Just breathe.
Think slow.
And set the terms on which we want to live our life with full consciousness, not just stubbornness!
Reasons or excuses?
Like me, I’ll bet you have a story for just about everything! Why you can’t lose weight, why you can’t keep a budget, what you can’t learn a new language, why you can’t learn to dance… Like me, you probably know that the story you tell yourself is really just your reason or your excuse […]
We’re mothers to our own experience!
Food for Thought I find this story enlightening: two brothers with alcoholic parents were interviewed and asked to what did they attribute their station in life. The first man was an alcoholic, living on the streets, who answered “What do you expect with parents like mine?” The second was a successful business man, active in […]
Time for some spring cleaning?
While we’re cleaning out closets and garages, we can think about this: spring house cleaning, while worth the effort, will only last for a season. But personal, inner, spring cleaning can have a long-lasting influence. So we don’t just want to dust behind those books on the bookshelves. Let’s give ourselves the gift of taking […]
Need to be grounded?
“I can’t. I’m grounded!” Does that message ring a bell with any of the rest of you? When I was growing up, getting grounded meant that I wasn’t allowed to do the things that I valued most at the time. These days, I often feel called to ground myself when I feel like I need […]
A choice in the race?
Like it or not, the race is on. It doesn’t matter whether the person belongs to “our” party or not. If we thought the mud was slinging before today, just wait. It’s only going to get worse. Why? Because that’s the nature of politics in America, particularly for a presidential race. But this post isn’t […]
Do not blame the lettuce!
When you plant lettuce, don’t blame the lettuce if it doesn’t grow well. Look into the reasons why it’s not doing well! Maybe it needs fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You don’t blame the lettuce! (The well-known spiritual teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh is credited with this lesson!) Yet when we have problems with […]
Will you eat that frog?
The frog in this Mark Twain quote has been long adopted by the business community and by productivity advocates to represent the one task or activity you are least looking forward to completing over the course of your day. The idea is that once the unappealing task is done, the rest of the day is […]
2 sides to every coin…
Since I’ve started back to Tai Chi, this symbol has renewed significance for me. Reminds me that life/ events/ people are NOT just black or white, but an integration of opposites. And I remember the line “can’t have one without the other” from that song about love and marriage! Coins have a front and back…can’t […]
More chocolate?
We’re halfway between two major reasons/excuses for chocolate! Yep…Valentine’s Day and Easter. When my sister and I had our chocolate store in Seattle, Valentine’s Day was our favorite holiday! We are still chocoholics and any excuse for chocolate works for us. And since chocolate doesn’t keep… it’s important to watch for those chocolate sales after […]