by Sam | Mar 7, 2016 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration, Reflection
I think most of us, including me, summarize perseverance by the simple mantra: “Don’t give up!” Perseverance is often measured by years, the amount of time invested, the number of sick days not taken. But I think “not-giving-up” can become an easy front. Plenty of people show up to work for years, to their churches and marriages and children for decades, and can look like they’re reliable. Except inside, they’re not there. Plenty of us can quit without physically quitting. We can live this way for years, thinking that “showing up” is enough and we can skate by on the bare minimum. In other words, perseverance is not just staying in, but being in. It’s being present and engaged. It’s not that we don’t have it in us to persevere. It’s that all of us wasn’t in the task at hand. Even a person who gets to the finish-line, who didn’t put their all into it, hasn’t really persevered. I do this, too. I can be there but not there. And I’m learning that being disengaged begins with my expectations. When our plans don’t turn out the way we want to, we tend to check out. Disengagement is a way of protecting ourselves from disappointment. This isn’t to judge anyone, because perseverance is hard. But I think it’s made harder because of the way we’ve been trained. Some of us have bought into an overly romanticized narrative. We get excited and inspired to do stuff, but the second we do stuff, it’s nothing like those first emotions that got us there. Here’s what I mean. I get really inspired...
