{"id":999,"date":"2021-04-08T16:31:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T22:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/?p=999"},"modified":"2023-10-22T19:26:52","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T01:26:52","slug":"perseverance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/2021\/04\/08\/perseverance\/","title":{"rendered":"Perseverance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yogi Berra, American former Major League baseball player and manager <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a kid, I heard those words spoken by Jim Kay of ABC Sports and never forgot them. On the farm, we didn\u2019t have a lot of time to watch sports or play any, for that matter. Running a successful dairy operation took up most of my parents\u2019 time and, consequently, most of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do recall the occasionally rainy Saturday when my father would turn on the television and then lean back in his faux leather recliner with a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Before long, I would hear a familiar fanfare and the words, \u201cSpanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition. This is ABC\u2019s Wide World of Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes I would sit with my father and watch the show. Most of the time, he had particular \u201crainy day\u201d chores lined up for me to do outside. I was never incredibly athletic, and my brief forays into the arena usually ended in the agony of defeat. It didn\u2019t occur to me until years later that the phrase \u201cthe thrill of victory and agony of defeat\u201d could also apply to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have many friends who love athletic competition, and most would likely agree that you don\u2019t leave until the game is over. If you think of life in terms of a sporting event, you wouldn\u2019t think of leaving the field, rink, pitch or diamond until the buzzer sounded. And likely, you wouldn\u2019t think of calling a game because you had a notion of what the outcome might be when there was still time on the clock. Sadly, that\u2019s what many of us do. When the going gets tough, and the odds are against us, we pack up our gear and head for the locker room.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To win at life takes perseverance. You can\u2019t show up, put in a half-hearted effort and expect to be crowned star of the game. No one succeeds, and no game is ever won without perseverance. It is perseverance that prompts us to continue to battle when the odds are not in our favour. It is perseverance that moves us through our most difficult challenges. It is perseverance that prompts us to look at our defeats not as crushing or insurmountable but rather as opportunities to learn, grow and compete more powerfully, strategically and successfully the next time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perseverance is defined as the act of persisting or striving, continuing or repeating behaviours despite difficulties, obstacles or discouragement. To put it quite simply, perseverance means never give up. Accomplishing anything worthwhile in life requires perseverance. Big goals and small goals alike require a persistent commitment to their achievement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major component of perseverance is awareness. Years ago, one of my goals was to improve my self-esteem. It\u2019s still my goal today. I didn\u2019t know much about self-esteem other than the fact I didn\u2019t have much of it. It\u2019s tough to pursue something you know little about, so one of my first goals was to find out as much as I could about the topic. It\u2019s no different than wanting to scale Mount Everest. You don\u2019t just show up at the foot of the mountain and start climbing. A mentor of mine once said, \u201cIf you want to know how to do something, ask someone who has done it.\u201d It\u2019s true. The best advice will usually come from those who have accomplished the feat (stood on the summit) or those who are well on their way to conquering it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with sports \u2013 and anything worthwhile in life \u2013 you must hold firm to the belief that what you\u2019re attempting has value, that it is worthy of your best effort. That requires focus. I have discovered that staying focused is vital to achieving anything worthwhile. As important as physical conditioning is, so are mental and emotional conditioning: having the right mental attitude, a stick-to-itiveness that will keep you going, the ability to stay the course. Equally important is the ability to shift gears on the fly, to make adjustments and tweaks when necessary. Most successful game plans will allow room for changes and the unexpected.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieving your goals and dreams will take time, so it\u2019s important to pace yourself. Think of it as a marathon. The fastest runner does not always win the race off the starting line. Indeed, a strong start is essential, but equally crucial is a steady and persistent execution. I chuckled the other day when I saw a poster that read, \u201cEven the turtle made it to the ark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there will always be those people who try to dissuade you from pursuing your goals. We\u2019ve all witnessed the jerk in the stands who constantly yells obscenities at the players. My best advice is to ignore the naysayers. I remember reading once that challenging goals and big dreams take time; the impossible ones take a little bit longer. Expect resistance when you play in the game of life \u2013 internally and externally. Stay grounded. Keep it real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American freelance writer Robert Brault once said, \u201cStubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that\u2019s good advice. The truth is that most people experience neither the thrill of victory nor the agony of defeat because they just won\u2019t get into the game. I think life is a full-contact sport, and you can\u2019t win if you don\u2019t play \u2013 it\u2019s that simple. I also think the \u201chuman drama of athletic competition\u201d can teach us much about life. It teaches us that most perceived limitations are just that: perception and seldom reality. Outcomes are rarely foregone conclusions, and we can transcend most anything if we\u2019re willing to persevere. And perhaps most importantly, in life as in any arena of athletic competition, remember: it ain\u2019t over until it\u2019s over.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In life as in any arena of athletic competition, remember: it ain\u2019t over until it\u2019s over.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/happy-businessman-victory-of-successful-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions\/1240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extremeesteem.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}