Sunday, January 20, 2008 . 21:24

i think the word persevere is overused. and over-rated. and misunderstood.

well first of all, persevere means to maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, or to be insistent in a statement, request, question, etc. therefore, it means having a goal, and pushing to get it no matter what. and from the definitions, it is fairly obvious that these goals are of your own. and thus we can say that if we push without our own purpose, its not perseverance.

an example would be, you want a gold medal for canoeing but the training is tough as hell. but. you persevere and get the medal.

a non example would be, you dont really give a shit about the medal, but you push through that training anyway. this, is called endurance, or tolerance.

A person who equates endurance to perseverance might wrongly accuse someone as someone who does not persevere. but he doesnt understand that his goals are different from the other persons goals. for example, a parent might scold the child for giving up in school because the parents goals for the son is to be sucessful and earn money. but the childs goal is to have fun. therefore, the parent is wrongly accusing him. in fact, he does have perseverance, hes just persevering towards having fun.

to make it more clear that endurance=perseverance is wrong, look at it this way. imagine you are doing something wrong, like say, robbing a bank. half-way through you realise, that its not the right thing to do. you dont go, oh well, since i have already put on my cat burglar suit, and my mask, and am halfway up the side of the building, might as well finish the job.

doesnt make sense right? but thats exactly what the faulted perception of perseverance is saying. its saying, no matter what you think, whether the end product is desirable to you or not, if you have started it, just finish it. someone with this idea of perseverance would probably not know when to stop enduring a certain circumstance or situation.

example: halfway through a course for a degree, you realise, its not the one for you, you hate this subject, you shouldnt be doing this. you should be getting a degree for say, psychology. but, you persevere, thinking, that opting out of the course would say you lack perseverance.

to most people, this would seem noble, courageous even. but to me. its folly. its like, you know you are going down the wrong road, but you refuse to turn around. truth is, you end up in the wrong place, and you are stuck with a job you hate. and then you call this 'preseverance'

but its not. persevering is when you have a goal in mind, and no matter what obstacles come your way. you continue towards that goal. endurance is not perseverance. endurance is PART of perseverance. endurance is perseverance minus a goal.

this is endurance: tolerating mockery
this is perseverance: tolerating mockery to prove a point.


this. is also random