Persistence Overcomes Adversity, Leads To Success

There is a great deal of self satisfaction gained when you get past the obstacles and hurdles people put between you and your desires. 

Persistence is what frequently separates the successful from those who are not. According to Dale Carnegie, "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." As the Japanese proverb goes, "Beginning is easy ─ continuing is hard."

Too many people are ready and willing to discard their aims, desires, dreams and even purposes in life by casting everything overboard as the first signs of difficulty or misfortune manifest. They see obstacles and failures as defeats, or even worse as misinterpreted "signs" that things are not meant to be the way they had planned, hoped or dreamed.

As we mentioned in the previous blog post on Overcoming Adversity: adversity is a fact of life and it cannot be controlled or avoided. 

Persistence is all about overcoming adversity, and knowing that hardships, problems, stumbling blocks, obstacles, and difficulties are simply ways of making you a better and stronger person. After all, as the old English proverb states, "A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

The great Roman poet Horace, who lived just before the time of Christ, identified this characteristic of persistence, writing, "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant."

And in more modern times, Michael Jordan had this to say about dealing with problems encountered: "If you are trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them, everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Find out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."

There is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from knowing that you have gotten past, through, around, over, or under the obstacles that life and other people put between you and your desires.

Additionally, a great deal of self confidence is to be gained by overcoming hardships and defeating adversaries who get in your way. As Harry Browne wrote, "When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer." 

That security is your own heightened self confidence. And when it comes to facing adversity, that is the best security to have. 

Please take 10 minutes now and write down a list of the challenges and problems you face, and what steps you can take to help you become more persistence and resilient in handling these. 

For motivational help in this area, please see our book Project You: Words of Wisdom, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. 

This article is partially excerpted from our top-ranked personal development book, Project You: Living A Determined Life, available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon.