Tenacity is a perfect topic for today as a group of us complete a ‘self-imposed’ blog challenge today, Day 31. To complete 31 articles or posts, one every day, truly required tenacity and perseverance. For some, it might not have been as difficult as for others. But no one was spared of giving it the extra push to fulfill that goal, at times overcoming hurdles.
Most people will tell you that tenacity is a great quality to have, especially if you’re trying something challenging that takes a while to complete like this challenge.
During this challenge process I asked myself why am I at times tenacious and nothing can hold me back to complete a goal and other times I can’t get it together. So, I had to dig a bit deeper and realized that I did not have a good concept of tenacity and perseverance.
What Really Is Tenacity?
“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. “ by Louis Pasteur, the French chemist and biologist whose discovery that fermentation is caused by microorganisms resulted in the process of pasteurization (1822-1895)
Tenacity is the ability to:
- grip something firmly.
- staying determined.
- being persistent.
In other words, a tenacious person will set a goal, make a plan, and then work at it until he or she reaches the goal no matter what the circumstances and obstacles are.
If you have tenacity, you are very determined and do not give up easily. It’s a great quality to have, especially if you’re trying something challenging, whether in your professional or personal life.
You’ll get better, quicker, at whatever it is you like to do in your spare time when you work on it consistently. It doesn’t matter if it’s tennis, playing the piano, or woodworking. In other words, tenacity is a skill and habit well worth pursuing that will have a positive impact on all areas of life.
Tenacity in whatever you set your mind to isn’t just about putting in the most hours. It’s about a gaining experience and learning as much as you can along the way and getting better at your craft.
The main reason tenacity is so important is because it’s how you reach your goals and dreams. It’s the secret ingredient in any recipe for success!
Practice makes perfect, and tenacity will make you practice more and try new things!
The Power of Perseverance
The old saying goes “If at first, you don’t succeed, try… try again”.
Perseverance is steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. It’s the simple act of keeping going and trying again and again. It is a continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.
Our challenge always is to harness our power in sticking it out, persevering with a sense of tenacity. There are always people and events that keep us from staying our course until we succeed anyway. Sometimes it’s the critic who tells us that it will never work. Other times it’s a new idea or a new tool that makes us consider changing course.
Danger of Giving Up Too Soon
Now let’s look at what happens when we choose to ignore tenacity. Instead of making it a habit of sticking with a plan and working on something until it succeeds, we may be tempted to give up just a little too soon.
You stop trying to work out your error and admit defeat. You give up trying and start something different instead. You give up on a hobby, e.g. gardening after a meager or failed crop. Sounds familiar?
There are dangers of giving up too soon:
- Quitting too soon. Often, when we’re at our lowest, and ready to call it quits, we’re very close to having a breakthrough. We may be one more try, one more push, or one more big effort away from making it work. Be certain that what you’re trying to do is not possible, or the goal you’re trying to reach is unreachable before you give up.
- We lose interest. The project simply seems to take too long or is harder than anticipated. This is particularly true when it’s hard to measure progress. It’s a struggle to stay motivated when you’re not sure you’re moving in the right direction.
- Our own worst critic. We second guess ourselves and lose the initial confidence we had in the project and our ability to see it through. We get that little voice in our head telling us to just give up because we won’t see success. Tenacity can help us silence that voice and keep going.
And then there is the curse of distractions. We all know that curse and have experienced that it is hard to make progress and reach our goals when we continue to get distracted and jump from task to task.
That’s when tenacity and perseverance give us the strength to stay on course and not being pulled into all different directions.
Insights Gained From the Blog Challenge
This discussion on tenacity and perseverance so relates to this 31-day Ultimate Blog Challenge and hopefully helps you to evaluate your own process as it did mine.
After two attempts of prior blog challenges and subsequent failures to complete, something always ‘nagged’ at me. I am not a person that easily gives up. At the same time, I also have started many projects and never finished them.
This time I was firmly convinced and determined that I had to prove to myself that I can succeed in this challenge process. And the fire of persistence got lit. As I understand it now, unlike before, tenacity kicked.
What strengthened my sense of tenacity is that:
- My website needed a content boost I had neglected as I am starting to offer workshops.
- The feedback structure added a special benefit of reassurance that my blogs had meaning and diminished self-doubts.
- The challenge required a commitment and accountability.
My fear remained whether I would have the perseverance to complete regardless of hurdles, difficulties and distractions.
Distractions and lack of focus win more often than I wish to admit. Those were the key factors of my failures of the last attempts and I never completed the challenge.
Also, it is clear to me now that I did not have a true sense of tenacity before; in other words, my purpose and commitment were not clear.
It took the two failures and an honest self-evaluation to reach a level of tenacity and commitment to try again and persevere.
Never Give Up!
Please share with us how you persevered in this Ultimate Blog Challenge!
Browsing through my files to search for some inspiration what to talk to you about today, I did not search hard. A special report published in 2010 by the members of an online community of 
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Sandhill Cranes have red foreheads, white cheeks, and long, dark, pointed bills to dig deeply into the marshy wetlands in search for food. They will soon migrate to Florida for the winter and hopefully return back in Spring to Ohio during breeding season. Just envision, in their wintering areas, they form flocks over 10,000.
In the last post, Day 20, we talked about 
Now, the bags had to be transformed to plarns. That is a most time-consuming job to lay out the bags and cut the strips. I realized that it is a great activity to invite friends over to a “Cutting Plarns Party.” Unfortunately, I have not done that yet as I just started not to long ago. But I certainly will. 
When I first saw these tea pots I just smiled and a feeling to total delight overpowered me. “But what does that have to do with spiritual practice?” you may ask.
For this exercise, just look at one of the delightful tea pots, e.g. the bunny or little pig. I know you are smiling already. Look at the happy face, the colorful decoration, the playful mood they convey.