Vignettes on Aging – Perseverance

You know the feeling of hanging on, of enduring difficult or uncomfortable situations, and sometimes these situations go on for days, weeks or much longer. Are there places in your life right now that you would acknowledge you are persevering? How long will you need to endure these things? Does knowing they won’t last forever make it easier to hang tough?

The ability to succeed in life is often attached to our ability to persevere. Most people feel that instead of being disheartened by failures we should make greater effort and return back to the task until the success is achieved. This requires perseverance.

Some people wear the ability to persevere as a badge of honor and are very vocal about how deep and how long their talents run in this ability. These people attract drama into their lives to make themselves seem more important or worthy or unworthy. Perhaps you are or have been one of these drama queens. In any case, there are both good and not-so-good aspects of persevering. It is obviously good to hang on and not throw in the towel when the first signs of difficulty arise, but to over-dramatize our endurance doesn’t make things easier.

Where you persevere in your life and for how long gives a clue about the effect it has on your well-being. If it’s significant and long-lasting, you can guess the resulting stress created by it will adversely affect your physical body.

What can you do to alleviate the effects requiring you to persevere for long periods of time about issues that rarely get resolved? Some of the techniques to reduce the harsh effects of long-term perseverance include meditation, counseling, prayer.

And, yes, sometimes it’s best for your health and well-being to cut your losses and stop hanging tough.

What have you learned about perseverance that could enlighten others?