LEARNING TO STAY THE COURSE – Part I

Perseverance is defined as the ability to persist in doing something, despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. Yep… pretty much sounds like weight loss fits right into that definition. We are definitely in need of perseverance when trying to stay the course for losing weight.

Because weight loss involves a learning process, we won’t always get it perfect. It can be frustrating at times, but it is undoubtedly worth it. Just like developing patience or endurance, we don’t just get those qualities because we want them, but rather they have to be developed. And the only way to develop them is to be placed in situations where they can be cultivated.

It would be easy to be patient living on an island without traffic, deadlines, and the demands of life. However, throw in real life circumstances that include things like a job, a couple of kids, mortgage payments, homework, sickness, stress, etc., and you’re going to find out very quickly just how patient you really are. The key, though, is understanding that patience is also developed in the midst of those situations - not in a protective bubble.

We have to choose to pursue patience or develop perseverance over time. But we have to first set our minds to actually want these things. And I mean really want them badly enough to do something about it. In other words, it’s not about just wishing that it would magically happen and then becoming frustrated when there is work involved to get there.

John Maxwell is a very well-known author, international speaker and pastor. Maxwell has written some great things about perseverance, and he provides very helpful strategies on how to develop it in a practical way. Maxwell’s approach is not just about how to achieve it, but how to eliminate the enemies of perseverance – or how to eliminate the things that get in the way of achieving long-term success. Because while perseverance begins with the right attitude (an attitude of tenacity), the desire to persevere alone isn’t enough to keep most of us going when we are tired or discouraged.

There will always be endless temptations, false beliefs and distractions that can lead us to abandon what once seemed so important to us. Perseverance is a character trait that needs to be cultivated, and that includes eliminating its five greatest enemies in order to bring a greater chance of success. We are going to identify one of these enemies within this post, and we will follow-up to address the remaining four enemies in Learning to Stay the Course - Part 2.

The first enemy we want to eliminate (better yet slay!) is A Lifestyle of Giving Up. Many of us learned this at a very young age. If we weren’t good at something like reading, playing sports or learning an instrument - instead of putting in the effort to be better - we just quit. We wanted it to come easy or have it given to us without the work. It got hard… we got discouraged… we gave up. And in the process, we created learned helplessness.

We might even have some sort of talent in an area, but without perseverance or the ability to cultivate that ability, our talent will never come to full fruition - because opportunities without persistence will be lost. Maxwell states that there is a direct correlation between perseverance and potential. So, if we have a habit of giving up in our past, we will need to learn to overcome it in order to be successful.

There’s no doubt that giving up is the easy thing to do in many situations, especially when we’ve been programmed to want to take the easy route. However, taking the difficult path will allow us to see our goals come to full fruition, and thereby create an increased sense of confidence and accomplishment needed to tackle even greater things.

Next week we will look at the other enemies we will need to conquer in order to reap the success of change.