REALITY CHECK #3: PESEVERANCE

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Almost did not know what topic to have a reality check on today, and was at the brink of saying I was too tired to write, then it hit me PERSEVERANCE! Hmm…how long does it take before you give up, throw in the towel, or lose interest? When you change something you have been doing for a while does it actually mean you have given up on that?

I remember my first job, I felt exhausted the first day I resumed. Settling in was kind of boring, and waiting for someone to put me through was not interesting at all. I got my head into the job by end of the first week and by the end of the first month I was overwhelmed by the sameness of everyday and breaking down by its stress. I did not spend more than six months on the job, though not for sentimental reasons but for the mandatory one year service to the Nation.

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Now I don’t want to recount the causes, the volunteering programs, the business ideas and businesses, the relationships, and cultivating of good habits that I may have balled out on.

They say Perseverance is steady and continuous action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties.

Wait! How long does it actually take before you can say you have persevered at something? Does perseverance mean staying in a situation that totally an impediment to your breakthrough and you know it? Does perseverance mean being the receptor in an abusive relationship? Or does it mean inflicting physical and emotional pain to the less threatening subject continuously just to teach them a lesson or two? Does perseverance mean putting up with the same things that cause offence just to prove that you have forgiven? Does it mean the deception and manipulations just to get that significant other shut the door against the world and stick to you like glue? Does it mean refusing to change that character that has hurt everyone close to you and anyone who tries to get close? Does refusing to make change happen perseverance too?

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When do you know the time has come to stop persevering at something? When do you know it’s time to move on? Should you even move on? Some people spend their whole lives on the same spot, in a vicious cycle, repeating the same things and returning to square one. Wise men have interpreted this as insanity or living dead. Sometimes to me this perseverance thing means staying in some comfort zone and refusing to sail out, take risks and live. Sometimes it means staying in a place to rot.

If I change my decision to keep doing something they’d say I’m lazy, I’m shirking responsibilities, I don’t have a long suffering nature.

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Hmm! I have a lot of questions as you may have noticed.

Is perseverance a virtue?

Is perseverance the law or the exception?