Develop the Skill of Perseverance

Perseverance is a vital skill to develop. In fact, one of the most important principles we can teach children is that effective and responsible people persist in their endeavors. They don’t give up easily. In fact, a major quality that classifies people as successful is that they stick to a task. They display perseverance.

What is it that enables certain people to persevere? Usually, they have a repertoire. They create many different ways to solve a problem.

Why is this important? Because if people have only one way to solve a problem, and if they try it and it doesn’t work, they will have a tendency to give up.

People who persist, however, will try one plan. If that approach doesn’t work, they go to another plan. If that plan doesn’t work, they create another. . . and then another. . . and they continue to search until they are satisfied. Those who display perseverance are usually operating at Level D in the Levels of Development. They have the internal motivation to keep going until the challenge is solved.

Perseverance is Key

Having a repertoire of problem-solving processes is what allows and encourages persistence. The concept of persisting or persevering has to do with knowing how to behave when you DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER.

In school, we are accustomed to receiving test results with a score assigned. The score represents the number of answers we know. However, the critical point in LIFE IS NOT THE NUMBER OF CORRECT ANSWERS WE KNOW, BUT RATHER HOW WE BEHAVE WHEN WE DON’T KNOW.

Most of the problems we face in life have no easy answers. When confronted with a dilemma, an enigma, or a problem that is ambiguous, do we think of alternatives to meet the challenge? Or do we say to ourself, “I can’t do this,” and then give up?

Tip: Perseverance can be developed with positive self-talk, by realizing that we always have the choice to give up or not to give up, and by developing a procedure before the urge to give up can overwhelm us.

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