By Shawn Albright
Start over, do-over, take a mulligan, a new beginning, it’s a new day, reset, reboot, a second chance…persevere!
I’ve tried and failed the whole healthy thing so many times that I can pick what I plan to eat when I fall off the wagon before I actually get on the wagon.
I’ve quit so many budgets that Dave Ramsey blocked me on Twitter.
I have enough incomplete projects in my career that I have it listed as “Experience” on my resume.
I have more blog posts that I quit mid-sentence than
The consequences of giving up for good are the only thing that keeps me trying. Giving up on health is an early death, giving up on finances means never retiring, giving up on your career is being stuck, giving up on marriage is a divorce, and giving up on your children means you’re an @$$hole. Sorry, I couldn’t come up with anything better on that last one.
“No man, you gotta keep going. What am I gonnna do, quit? That’s not an option. You gotta keep on keepin’ on. Life’s a garden, dig it and make it work for you. You never give up man, that’s my philosophy.” – Joe Dirt (Dear-tay)
I see adults that still struggle with the belief that failure is failure. How many great things in life do they miss out on because they won’t keep trying? Thankfully my parents didn’t give up easily; they had to try twice before they got the perfect child.
To succeed in most things means you have to fail…a lot. Riding a bike, riding a bull, sports, dancing, skydiving, being a good parent, and so on. Become an expert at failing and you will eventually find success.
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” – John Quincy Adams
My son has a lot of quit in him. He will try something exactly ONE time, and if not successful, he throws in the towel. Encouragement works sometimes, but most young kids need to practice perseverance. Like patience, the only way to develop perseverance is to endure difficulties. I’m not talking about sabotaging him and making him frustrated, but I do think kids like this need to be challenged. BUT, the challenge should be in something they have a passion for.
For him, it is Legos! We dump them on the table, teach him how to read the instructions, help him once in a while, let him try, mess up, and try again until he figures it out. He is learning a little about perseverance without knowing it. If you are constantly rescuing and bailing your kids out, you are crippling them! Let them fail then teach them to overcome.
If you also struggle with perseverance, check out Joel Runyon and his Cold Shower Therapy Guide. He gives you an incredibly simple task, though it isn’t easy, that you can do every day (for free) to teach you to do the Impossible and develop a little more perseverance. As a little bonus, make sure to read the Impossible Manifesto.
This article originally appeared on 30-ish and Confused.
