Tuesday 28 August 2018

The Power Of Patience And Tenacity Of Purpose

By Debra Nelson


History is liberally sprinkled with individuals that were seen as great leaders, hugely successful business people, exceptional artists and celebrated scientists. May studies have been conducted to try and find out whether all of these exceptional individuals shared certain characteristics, even though their fields of endeavour differed so wildly. There are indeed certain characteristics shared by most highly successful people. Among these, patience and tenacity of purpose stand out as traits absolutely vital to success.

A patient person is defined as someone that has the ability to deal with adversity, that can endure difficult circumstances and that never loses his temper when annoyed by circumstances or other people. A patient person is able to wait without complaining. The ability to be patient is an extremely valuable skill and perhaps to only effective way in which to deal with the daily frustrations facing all humans.

Being patient should not be confused with waiting idly for something to happen. A fisherman sitting for hours on end in his boat may be seen as patient. However, just sitting there is not actually being patient if he has not prepared his bait and cast his line. Only once he took action, by preparing his bait and by casting his line, can he be described as patient while he waits for a fish to bite.

A tenacious person is someone that can perhaps best be described as determined, as someone with strength of will. Tenacious people are single minded and they do not allow anyone or anything to detract them from their purpose. They know precisely what it is that they want to achieve and they pursue that goal without giving up or without becoming side tracked.

Pursuing an impossible or unrealistic goal does not mean that someone is tenacious. For example, setting oneself the goal to prove that the earth is flat is foolhardy, rather than tenacious, regardless of the effort and resources poured into achieving this goal. A tenacious person has realistic goals with realistic target dates. He then pursues this goal with determination and strength of will.

The combination of being both tenacious and patient is a very powerful one indeed. Such a person will set very specific goals and perform all the actions necessary to achieve that goal. He will deal with setbacks calmly and rationally, never losing faith in his ability to achieve what he set out to achieve. In combination, these two characteristics define a person that is, on the one hand, single minded but also, on the other hand, able to deal with problems.

Contrary to what many people believe, it is perfectly possible to unlearn negative traits and to acquire positive ones. One can definitely learn how to be tenacious and patient. Disciplines such as yoga and meditation can be of great help. There are also numerous internet resources and books on this subject. All one needs is the will to improve in this area.

It is important to understand that tenacious people are not foolhardy and patient people are not lazy. Edison was tenacious in his pursuit of inventing the light bulb and he remained patient when thousands of experiments failed before he finally succeeded. He never gave up and he never lost faith.




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