What is Perseverance? The word has a good ring, but is it something you can buy? You can get many things today in a tube or bottle, but perseverance is not one of them. It can be gained only through encountering difficulty. Most of us live in a consumer society where everything is available on demand. If advertising is to be believed, whatever we want should always be available quickly, easily, cheaply, and better than ever. The subtle implication is that the goal of life is to ‘have it easy’.
This may be tempting, but deep down, we know that it is not true. One way to escape from that mind bending mindset is to decide to pursue a goal. What do we want out of life and what do we need to do to achieve it? It is only as we strive to achieve our goals that we will learn the value, and necessity, of working through hardship on the way. As we strive, as we learn not to give up but to keep on when the going is tough, we then discover that we are building perseverance.
In December 2024, Gerhard Moolman started a solo journey paddling a small boat across the Atlantic Oean from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of South America. That’s 3600 km of wild ocean, and he was planning to do it in 45 days. Let’s imagine that, by the end of day one, the last bit of the African continent had slipped beyond the horizon, and it would be seven long weeks before he saw anything other than open sea, either ahead or behind him. Some days the wind and current might be helping him, on others they would be pushing him back, no matter how hard he worked to keep his tiny craft moving forwards. Every day required him to strive, hour after hour, to keep moving towards his destination.
As we consider this epic journey of one human being, what word comes to mind? Madness? Loneliness? Danger? All of these are possible, but I think the one that nails it for me is PERSEVERANCE: pressing on, never giving up, no matter how extreme the difficulty; committing everything to reaching a goal.
But why the struggle? What gain does perseverance bring with it? Students who complete the SkillWise digital skills program often say something like: “I’ve learned to keep trying and to never give up. I now know that I can achieve any goal I set myself, provided I never, ever give up.”
That’s perseverance, a powerful tool to help you reach your goals. With perseverance in your toolkit, you can take on the world. And we at SkillWise are offering to help you build it!