The Virtue of Perseverance

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people “ – Randy Pausch ( The Last Lecture )

When I hear the term perseverance I think of obstacles in life, the amount of effort it takes to overcome the obstacle, and the accompanying relentless optimism that a person must have regardless of how bleak or difficult the moment may seem.

Many, if not all great things in this world are accomplished because of continuing on regardless of how long the road may seem. Perseverance takes on a different meaning for each individual. As we take a deeper look at perseverance I would like you to reflect on what perseverance means to you and I challenge you to identify which type of perseverance “ fits “ you best.

Most of us face our first obstacle very early in life. The ability to walk is a reward for persevering through the numerous times we fell as we continued to try. Some of us were born with physical limitations that caused us a great deal of trouble in our youth. Regardless of how challenging the task may have seemed, we are here today. We persevered .We all walked into this classroom.

There are some people who overcome obstacles very easily in life and perseverance is just as normal as breathing. A large amount of these
individuals go on to do amazing things in life because to them no mountain is too high to climb and no marathon is too long to run. These people place obstacles in front of themselves simply just to accomplish the next great thing in their lives. They persevere easily and naturally. They go on in life seeking the next great obstacle to overcome and difficult situation to persevere through.

Then there are those who no matter how hard they try it seems like the mountains they climb in life continue to become steeper. There are those that the marathon just continues on. Regardless of how hard they try the road seems endless. They continue on simply because the reward of trying is greater than the feeling of giving up and failing. These people have been taught lessons in life by persevering regardless of stumbling. They have learned that a stumble or even a fall simply gives new meaning to life when you stand up and try again.

Perseverance and obstacles go hand in hand. We all have goals and for all of us in this class room today that goal is education. We may not be great writers, but yet we continue to try.

There is a process, for which preserving through obstacles can become somewhat easier. Having a clear goal in mind can help us to identify the possible obstacles in our path which we must prepare to face. Knowing where we are in life, and understanding our own limitations may help us obtain a clearer picture as well. If we break down the parts of our difficult and seemingly insurmountable obstacle we may find that its easier to take on a one small challenge at a time. While giving our all in an effort to persevere we must be flexible because we may find that there is more than one path to success or even that the path you may be on may not be the best one. Regardless of the path we take we must take action. Taking action in key to accomplishing any task, or overcoming any and all obstacles. Many of us in this room today took the path of service to our nation. We chose to place country over self. We made this unselfish choice using our own free will and devoted ourselves to something greater. We knew this decision would be very difficult. We knew it would be a challenge. We knew we would have to
persevere.

Perseverance plays a large part in many virtues in life. It is simply the definition of continued effort. Effort takes action and many of our virtues in life such as Sacrifice, Patriotism, Hope, Loyalty, and Patience require a great deal of Perseverance.

In searching for the definition of Perseverance we must unfortunately take a look at the opposite of persevering. The opposite of perseverance is failure. For many of us we were taught and trained that failure is not an option. Our military training instilled in us the will to succeed, and persevere without failure regardless of the obstacle. For some, failure is an option, but not for the veterans in this class. We know and understand one way and that way is forward regardless of what we do in life.

Perseverance in society presents itself in many ways. The most well known example I believe is perseverance displayed as success. A large amount if not all successful people in life have persevered through some obstacle in their life. If they are wealthy they may have had to overcome the difficulty of being broke. If they are professors of great universities such as Hawaii Pacific University they may have had to overcome the challenge of persevering through many years of education in order to reach their dream of teaching others. If they are in charge and leaders of great companies they could have had to persevere through many years of climbing the corporate ladder rung by rung.

As I conducted research on this very intriguing virtue I discovered several truths. I discovered that although perseverance is needed in all aspects of life. It can be applied to any goal. It can take the shape of many forms. It takes a great deal of energy for some and less for others. I came across numerous quotes and in regards to this virtue as everyone has had to persevere through a challenge in life at some point and has expressed it in many articulate ways. I personally discovered that within myself, I have the will to persevere. I have come to realize that to live we must persevere. All of us can identify with the will to succeed. I think that the will to succeed is something that every single person in this classroom can identify with and it is clearly defined this world. Failure is not an option, we must persevere.