Posted on 03/24/2015 5:00:24 AM PDT by austinaero
THE POWER TO HOLD ON
“The power to hold on is characteristic of all men who have accomplished anything great; they may lack in some other particular, have many weaknesses or eccentricities, but the quality of persistence is never absent from a successful man. No matter what opposition he meets or what discouragement overtakes him, drudgery cannot disgust him, obstacles cannot discourage him, labor cannot weary him; misfortune, sorrow, and reverses cannot harm him. It is not so much brilliancy of intellect, or fertility of resource, as persistency of effort, constancy of purpose, that makes a great man. Those who succeed in life are the men and women who keep everlastingly at it, who do not believe themselves geniuses, but who know that if they ever accomplish anything they must do it by determined and persistent industry." ~ Orison Swett Marden from An Iron Will
That. Is. Awesome.
Persistence = Power.
As Calvin Coolidge tells us: “The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Benjamin Franklin tells us: “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Martin Seligman, the Godfather of the Positive Psychology movement echoes their wisdom. (See Notes on Learned Optimism + Flourish.) He tells us: “Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence.”
(Excerpt) Read more at brianjohnson.me ...
More from the excerpt:
"The greatest obstacles to persistence?
Thinking things should go perfectly right out the gate. Getting flustered the moment your great plan proves to, actually, kinda suck. Thinking mistakes + temporary failures are signs you’re an idiot. You know, helpful stuff like that."
"We need to believe in ourselves. We need to KNOW that we will fall down again and again in our journey up the mountain. We need to get up each time with a smile as we dust ourselves off, thank the powers-that-be for the opportunity to get just a little stronger, and GET BACK TO WORK. In short, we need to have an iron will."
What might be the “literary” relationship between Orison Swett Marden and Ayn Rand, I wonder?
Good question!
Is impatience inversely proportional to stubbornness?
Can contentment stray into complacency and finally into sloth?
Again (and unfortunately) Ayn Rand thought the “rational mind exercised in freedom” would/could supplant any belief in God.
All human endeavors are the result of the sovereign God’s allowance; all things have been established from the creation such-that (Ecclesiastes), there is nothing NEW we can devise or imagine.
That said, I have read Rand and find her prescience regarding this “time of man” deeply interesting as applied to the world-theater we now observe (I know...weasel words to say I’m not a Randian-liberterian).
But, when do we reconnect to “God has created and is sovereign” in the aspects of our lives? Again...a very interesting possible connection.
See my #6
/johnny
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