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!
1 Comment
Thx for the distinction. I needed that. In some instances I feel it was/is appropriate to persevere. In others it may be a okay to “give it up” and move on.