Perseverance Opens Doors
“Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:35–36
Think - the door is always open, never closed, to the choices we may make. Success is making life choices that please God. You can choose to persevere. Perseverance pleases God.
A dictionary definition of perseverance may sound like this to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly. According to Angela Duckworh, grit is the secret sauce that drives success. Grit is more important than both talent and intellect. Angela Duckworth[*], based on her studies, defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”
Daniel was a gritty man.
Daniel’s life story extends more than eighty years. It all starts with Jerusalem being taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel and his three friends are transported to Babylon as slaves and given to the eunuchs for training. Daniel and his friends complete their three years of training. Daniel rises in government when he interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed by the Babylonians. Daniel’s vision of four beasts. (Dan. 7) Daniel serves his second king, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar (Dan. 5). Daniel serves a third king when Cyrus, king of Persia, conquers Babylon. Daniel serves a fourth king, Darius the Mede assumes power in Babylon. Daniel reads Jeremiah and prays and fasts for the Jewish nation. (Dan. 9) About 50,000 Jews return to Jerusalem, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. Daniel (about age 83) has his prophetic vision about the end times (10:1). The temple is completed and dedicated.
Can you imagine watching the devastation of your homeland? Living through the reign of four kings whose transition was sometimes violent? Then, being alive when some of his people are released to return to their homeland? Daniel had perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Daniel was gritty. Daniel had to have at least two things in his life to persevere through his trials. These two things, among others, may help you persevere. You need motivation given by others and motivation that wells up inside by giving pleasure to your soul.
Motivation from others may come from odd places. Remember, Daniel’s friends were in a furnace.
Ellen McCarthy wrote about “The Quitters Club.” On a drizzly Saturday afternoon four years ago (early 2015), seven people gathered around a high-top table at Busboys and Poets, a restaurant in Washington D.C. They were united by a single cause: to chuck it all. It was the inaugural meeting of The Quitter Club. Tagline: “Let’s give up on our dreams… together!”
The founder of the club, Justin Cannon, had quit all sorts of things – filmmaking, music, graphic design, college, fashion. He’d pursue a dream, self-doubt would kick in, and then he’d quit, always feeling like a failure. At a filmmakers’ gathering in February 2015, Cannon expressed his growing exasperation. “I was like, ‘We should have a group where people want to give up on their dreams.’ I was making a joke,” he recalls. “But somebody said, ‘You know, that’s a really good idea.’”
A few days later, he took action. He signed up for a Meetup organizer account online and posted the notice for his new group. He thought he might be forming a club of one, but within 48 hours, 35 people signed up. Out of those 35, seven showed up at the first meeting.
One was ready to cast aside her long-held ambition to become an actress. Same deal for a would-be writer. Another was ready to quit Washington D.C. altogether.
The hodgepodge group of strangers were drawn together by the same invite that read: “Most of us have something special we’d like to do with our lives. Often this Holy Grail does us more harm than good; costing valuable time, resources and relationships … At the Quitters’ Club… we can help each other stomp out the brush fires set in our hearts and get on with our lives.”
Strange thing was as they gathered to talk about quitting, they ended up encouraging each other to keep on going.[†]
The people in the group rebuilt each other’s tenacity. We know that Daniel was not alone in his exile. Coming together fortifies perseverance.
The pleasure we feel inside may motivate our perseverance and give us grit. Hebrews says, “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” The scale isn’t just for the big things. I think the scale may also be very small. Think of this as practicing joy to develop perseverance.
Christiopher Bergland[‡]from The Athlete’s Way gives simple advice on how to teach yourself to persevere by creating pleasure in yourself. Here are some simple ways he writes about how to experience pleasure as you develop perseverance and work toward your goals.
…Every time you complete a task in your daily life visualize that you have just self-administered a hit of 'feel good' juice and that habit will be reinforced.
Remember, Henry Ford said, "There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."
… The next time you feel unmotivated to exercise or work harder towards a goal remember the "Pleasure Principle" and the equation that SWEAT = BLISS. Laziness and lack of follow through is seductive because it's easy and requires no effort. But, over time the habit of complacency leaves you depleted and you become dissatisfied and depressed. Reinforcing this, Jean Wiecha believes that regular physical activity is the most effective way to begin to hardwire the habit of perseverance. Anytime you lace up your sneakers and start moving your body and achieve a goal you are reinforcing a mindset of perseverance that bleeds into all aspects of your life.[§]
Low levels of pleasure in what you do makes you apathetic. If you do not accomplish something every day your reserves will diminish. Humans are designed to work hard and to be rewarded for their efforts biologically. Being uninspired and lacking self-motivation is a downward spiral that can snowball out of control. It's so easy to become bitter, cynical and hopeless when your reserves are low. But you have the power to turn this around by consciously looking at everything you achieve--from flossing your teeth, to taking out the trash--as a way to build your reserves. Look at everything you do in the day as a chance to create a sense of reward and deliver a rush of satisfaction.
…The key to overcoming large obstacles or 'mountains' is to break them into doable doses and tackle them one 'mole-hill' at a time. Turn a "Macro-Goal" into very tangible "Micro-Goals", each of which gives you a small hit of joy.
For example: Something as simple as putting fresh linens on your bed can be a goldmine. Each step in the process: from pulling all four corners of a fitted sheet around the mattress; to putting the pillows back in their cases; to then tucking in the sheets to create "hospital corners" are all chances to give yourself mini-hits of reward. When you have the bed completely made you get a sense of accomplishment. You can break every task you face in daily life into mini-achievements that each release a hit of joy.
One of the most important reasons to define an action as a 'goal' is that it needs to be viewed as something with a beginning, middle and end. When you accomplish the goal you will get a sense of contentment and satisfaction that always accompanies the act of persevering and getting the job done.
Be your own cheering squad. Think how we celebrate every attempt a crawling baby makes to pulling themselves up to walk, we cheer and clap. Cheer and clap for yourself. Learn to say, “Yes, I did it!”
What can we learn from Daniel for successful living? How can we learn to choose a life that is pleasing to God? We may choose faith; we may choose personal worship; we may choose the attitude of Christ. And, we may choose to persevere by holding close to those on journey home with us and by allowing ourselves to experience joy and the reward of God right now.
Prayer: I pray to the Lord my God. Maker of Heaven and Earth. You are the one that flung the stars in the skies; you set the heavens in their place and continue your creation through the every expanding universe. You are mindful of us, weak and lowly people; yet, you come to us. You come to each of us in our moment of need. You can take our anger and handle our hate. You bring a moment of joy in the smallest of tasks; that when added together, a hundred million small moments of success pill up until we are in your perfect will. Let us find the moments. Let us persevere. Amen.
[*]Angela Duckworth is the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development. She is also the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change For Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics. A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the White House, the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.
[†]Ellen McCarthy, “The Quitters Club: Let's Give Up on Our Dreams Together,” The Washington Post, 3-25-15.
[‡]Christopher Bergland, The Athlete's Way, The Neuroscience of Perseverance, Dopamine Reinforces the Habit of Perseverance, Posted Dec 26, 2011
[§]Associate Professor of Exercise and Health Sciences at U Mass Boston named Jean Wiecha, who is also the Director of the GoKids program there. Dr. Wiecha has been conducting community-based research on child health for 20 years.
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