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Tag Archives: Persistence

Persist!

13 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Commitment, Discipline, Inspiration, Persistence, Quitting, Strength

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Discipline, Dreams, Drive, Endurance, Fortitude, goals, Patience, Persistence

Day in and day out, the grind towards what we want to achieve and the end point until our goals are reached is often tiresome! It can drive us to the point of fatigue and even abandoning what it is we are pursuing! But in our makeup, our very biology, we have tenacity and persistence inherent within us. Life seems to persist through God’s design, for His purposes, and by His grace, in spite of what we do or attempt to do. Life and all living matter persist, beyond our own efforts to destroy things, beyond our knowledge, or in our careless abandonment, we can see it all around us. So, in our pursuit of life’s goals and our dreams, we shouldn’t let a few moments or periods of fatigue, brain fog, or disappointment take from us our inspiration, our intention, or our indefatigable drive! We’re made of tougher stuff than that!

We must persist in our efforts. We must learn by habit how to rely upon our muscles of patience, fortitude, and determination to see us through, rather than giving up somewhere along the way! At those key moments when all seems so overwhelming and the road ahead looms too long or taxing for any further effort, we need to hunker down into a stubborn gear on our inner gear shift, which takes us over the rough spots and the most challenging part of our goal ascent! Impossible you say?! I would argue that it’s harder to live with quitting, which forces upon us a lifetime of regret, wasted potential, and the repetitively spent energy of what if! One moment of fatigue can lead to a lifetime of why? Why did I quit? Why did I let my dream slip away? Why did I fail? Why didn’t I see it through? Why? Why? Why?!  

If you want something bad enough, you have to develop the habit of the “hunker down”, using the muscles of determination, patience, and fortitude when other fleeting emotions or feelings are telling you otherwise! I’m not suggesting you keep running into brick walls of impossibility, but if there is even a thought of finishing what you began in some pursuit of a goal or dream, then don’t let the efforts required in doing so dissuade you! The efforts are part of the big reward! The efforts are what make the end goal so much more enticing! Without the sweat, dogged pursuit, planning, and execution, there is little in which to be proud, to feel rewarded, or to claim your prize. There are no participation trophies for all. Only those who put in the time, effort, and endure for whatever amount of time is required to reach their goal will win!    

Reaching the goal is only a victory if you had to overcome some obstacle or find a way through some roadblocks. If it was easy, it wasn’t a very big goal! If it was something everyone could do or have, then it isn’t really much of a dream specific for you! I’m suggesting that you have within you limitless potential to overcome, to reach higher, to go further, and to attain some new level. But if you don’t persist in that disciplined challenge in a temporary moment when the pursuit seems too hard, difficult, pressing, taxing, overwhelming, or just too tiresome, then you will never know your full potential! Persist! If you want something, remember why when you hit the wall, and persist! 

Baby Steps or Giant Leaps . .

07 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Commitment, goals, Life, Patience, Persistence, Positivity, Success

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Achievement, goals, Persistence, Success

Often times, the person we’re hardest on in this life is ourselves! We set high goals or we have lofty expectations, which can lead us to feel disappointed when we come in with lesser achievements and accomplishments. Perhaps we’re in the process of reaching for more, of going for grander distances, pursuits, and for more overall. We might have wanted to hit some higher mark or reach some bigger result, but we mustn’t forget what baby steps or giant leaps we did take in pursuit of those goals! 

Yesterday, I was wanting to swim a significant distance. I planned on doing a distance swim which would have kept me moving towards an end goal I have for this season’s accomplishments. Last Summer, I had worked up to slightly over two miles of non-stop lap swimming in my pool by the end of the swimming season. I was thrilled to have reached that significant measured distance without stopping! So, this Summer, when the swimming season began back in May, I set out to beat my distance of last year. As of July 4th, just a few days ago, I reached the two-mile mark for non-stop lap swimming in my backyard pool! Pleased as punch with hitting that measurement, I will now endeavor to exceed that goal in my swimming for the remainder of the Summer. In pursuit of that goal though, yesterday’s swim was not as rewarding! I had to stop at 60 lengths of non-stop swimming, as I just ran out of steam before even hitting half a mile! I surely hadn’t fueled my body with proper nutrition for a longer swim. 

With such a brief swim in comparison to my two-mile swim just days ago, I felt disappointed and discouraged afterward. How was it that I could only do so few lengths of the pool just two days later? Well, in hindsight, I realize I am being really hard on myself for disparaging the swim I did yesterday. After all, those lengths I did swim without stopping still are significant! Yes, I wanted to do more, but I just couldn’t. However, I did swim anyway, which was better than not swimming at all! And I pushed myself during those 60 lengths of the pool, so I did give myself a workout in the process, although an abbreviated one compared to the longer swim I had planned on doing! Each swim does contribute to my overall conditioning and my training goals, after all. I just need to accept each day’s efforts as being worthwhile! Going easier on myself is key.  

It’s so easy to be hard on ourselves for not doing more or for not reaching interim goals we’ve set for ourselves. We forget to look at those interim steps we’re taking as being meaningful to the overall end goal. Every single step, no matter the size, is still getting us closer to something bigger. Every single time we participate in our pursuits, we’re developing literal or figurative muscles, which do help us perform more the next time! In my example, I am developing those literal swimming muscles and building my endurance, even if the distances I want to do aren’t always exceeding the last swim I actually did. And, each swim I take keeps me fit and ready for more, as my muscles remember the efforts both greater and lesser. 

We must remember to look at all the steps we’re taking as being successful, in that we’re moving consistently towards a goal ahead, even if some steps are baby-size and others are giant leaps! Each is a contribution towards reaching a goal we deem important for our lives overall! Remember to assess your progress in a way which is more accepting of the baby steps as well as the giant leaps. In doing that, you will be better able to contain your disappointment, to manage your progress, and to preserve your sense of encouragement along the way! Goals are always something we’re working towards, and in my case, even though I hit the goal of swimming non-stop consistently for two miles, I will want to see how much further I can swim non-stop anyway! My goal is inevitably a sliding one, and so my progress should be measured in turn – via sliding steps and flexible efforts! As long as I don’t give up because I don’t always hit my mark, I’m still moving forward towards reaching some end! Baby steps or giant leaps, I’m still making progress!    

Living Takes A Will . .

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Choices, Commitment, Conquering Fear, Courage, Dreams, Faith, Growing, Success, Trials

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Hope, Perseverance, Persistence

Living takes a will . . one courageous, trusting and hopeful enough to overlook fear, the “what-ifs” and the scrapes of falling in failure. We cannot dare live, with our eyes closed, behind our protective walls and within our safest confines. Living means we face our fears with courage, we endeavor to meet our challenges head on and we keep climbing no matter how many times we slip or fall from this rung or the next. Living isn’t easy, without obstacle; and it surely isn’t done in the safety of our mind’s making. It takes faith, hope, trust, perseverance as well as a surrender to our inability to control every detail and every outcome. But living is worth every scraped knee we endure, each failure, all of our attempts, each broken heart or broken dream. For in getting those, we lived!  images success

No one ever experiences anything worthwhile when merely existing. Push yourself to go beyond today and every day you get by purposefully living rather than merely existing through them. How do we do that and what is the difference? Living means we are already outside of whatever comfort zone we may have set up for ourselves; it means we dare to realize our dreams, to attempt to make our desires reality and it means we don’t give up on ourselves! Living, as opposed to just existing, means that when faced with challenges, we don’t hide, run or flee. We aren’t going to outrun all of our challenges, so the sooner we learn to step up to the plate each one represents, the better. It is life-affirming, confidence-building and esteem-igniting each and every time we take life’s challenges on for the sake of passing the tests and trials each represents to us. If we run, hide, seek to escape or let others do the heavy-lifting in life, we never learn to trust in ourselves, to believe in ourselves or to have faith and hope in our future!  images5Y99UUMF

Just like with our first steps, our first developmental stages through infancy, life never ceases to present to us challenges and learning experiences which we must overcome and pass in order that we may grow and develop into new stages! And each of those new stages brings more of the same by way of tests and trials which we must learn to pass successfully in order that we grow and develop for what lies ahead. Imagine if we had chosen in our toddler years to remain helpless and infantile? No one does that because adulthood represents an promising period which prompts our desire for more. All children seem to want to leapfrog through their development, eager to grow up before their time. Why then do we suddenly find our scraped knees, fears and failures so overwhelming at some advancing age, that we wish to halt our own progress? Keep pushing through challenges, obstacles and all the mess life brings! The only person you really hurt when you let fear, doubt, insecurity or apathy win is you! Make it your goal to live today, with a will, courage, faith and hope. Don’t let life beat you back, down or out.    Signature02

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Cheryl Ries-Author & Model

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