SYNTHESIS
The Key to Success
Remember when you first learned how to ride a bike, you never got it the first time? There were the training wheels, helmets and probably 10 different pads just to make sure you didn't get hurt. There were the multiples times you thought you almost got it but ended up falling off. But then there was that one time, the first time, that you rode a bike by yourself. You may not have realized, but you never gave up. Riding a bike as a child was something you've probably always wanted to do, and you achieved it. How? Perseverance. Perseverance: a continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. When learning how to ride a bike, you never gave up and you kept going. This may be something small compared to the rest of life, but when you wanted to learn how to ride a bike, you set your mind to it and never gave up. Through perseverance, you had a small success.
Perseverance, however, is not something that will happen in one day. The success from perseverance never come immediately. It takes time, something many aren't acknowledging. The success comes in one small bit at a time, usually never in big chunks. In Perseverance in Achieving Success, by Dale Carnegie, he mentions that because the successes are small and come one a time, "to develop perseverance is doing small steps". Although there are successes through perseverance, it is not always about the successes. In order for you to persevere, there must be failures. That's the key point of perseverance. To not give up after these failures. In order to get those successes one desires, they must "learn from these failures and to continue moving forward".
Riding a bike was only one example. Take academics, another example. Many these days want to take all honors, get straight A's, and a lot of extra-circulars, sometimes it gets to be a little too much. The struggle they endure is something that will benefit them in the long run, although it doesn't make sense when they are struggling. The struggle itself, "along with patience, helps them develop new ways of solving the issues to succeed". Those days when you want to give up, not go to school, are the days that you should try even harder. When you want to give up but don't, the success is always sweeter. Carnegie talks about how perseverance is a hard thing to achieve, but the "most important thing is to learn from failures". To be able to learn from failures, you must be able to "take the necessary lesson and move on", not holding onto anything. I believe that the minute you begin to hold on to the past and your mistakes, you start to regret and hold back. When you hold back from what your goal is, you are holding back mentally but also your ability to achieve your goal, faltering your success.
To add on, in The Importance of Grit and Perseverance in Your Health, by James Clear, Clear mentions that not only has perseverance helped in academic situations, he explains that it also leads to a passion towards your goals. He includes the story of a cadet from West Point and how it wasn't "the strength or smarts or leadership that had them succeed, it was the mental aspect. The grit-the perseverance". Not everyone is a cadet, yes, but the same concept applies to everyone. While West Point may be one of the best military schools, that may just be one small goal for these young people. Same applies to everyone. Focus on the smaller things, the smaller goals and keep pushing, no matter how hard it gets. Another example would be a spelling bee. Clear mentions that "competitors in the National Spelling Bee outperform their peers not because of IQ, but because of their grit and commitment to more consistent practice". The commitment competitors show is all because of perseverance. They have achieved their passion to a national level, a great deal. But why did they achieve it but not others? They were mentally stronger than the others.
We often think that perseverance and being mentally strong are always for long-term big goals. But that's not always the case. Being mentally strong can also mean for short-term small goals. Clear mentions that "we often think of being mentally tough are always in extreme situations...but what about everyday circumstances?". The small goals we set for ourselves each day are small and definitely not extreme, but to keep pushing through each day is mental toughness. We often think of success as being big victories, but the everyday situations and goals we achieve are also successes.
While persevering through situations, not only do you gain mental toughness, but you will also learn new skills. In The Importance of Perseverance in Pursuing Your Goals, by Mike Marko, Marko mentions that "you will be forced to overcome crippling self-doubt and frustration". Not only will you gain mental toughness, you'll learn to overcome things when persevering. To add on, "Perseverance is a spiritual force," explained R'ymonda. "To win, you can't just decide to focus harder. You have to access that force. It's within all of us, but you have to know how to access it". R'ymonda connects the topic of perseverance to a more personal level, as she was born 2 months early. If she had not fought through the beginning stages of her life, she would not be here today. This is only one example of perseverance that has affected someone's life greatly.
To add on, in Perseverance Is Key to Success, the author (unnamed) mentions that the successes in life do not come easily. You have to continuously work hard for them and while that may be frustrating, "you have to pass through [the failures] before you achieve something worthwhile in life". The mistakes won't always be nice in the moment, but you have to remember that they will pay off in the long run, as long as you persevere.
It doesn't matter much about how smart you really are, but the mental aspect [the perseverance] in all these scenarios is what makes success a victory. Some of these may be small victories, but others big. They all are the same, though. They all required perseverance, not everything will be easy.