Carpe Mentality: 12 Days to Seizing Your Best Life in ChristНамуна

Perseverance: Endurance that Lasts a Lifetime

When you get the opportunity to feel the pain of success, I say relish it. Before you know it, the opportunity will pass you by. We all get chances to develop perseverance, but not everyone recognizes that pain as an opportunity to grow. Most people give up too easily. When you give up, you miss the opportunity to grow. Truly embrace your hardships and struggles, as those are blessings from God. People often pray to God for perseverance yet do not always realize that God has already answered their prayer through opportunities to build perseverance.

Building that tough skin will allow you to embrace the pain. Having the chance to recognize that pain is not always bad. God gave us pain so that we can experience growth. Pain is good. Pain is your friend. Pain leads to perseverance. Perseverance leads to an individual who never gives up. If you have decided to never give up, then you’ve decided to embrace pain as your friend. As a gift from God. Understand your pain and know why you experience it. Do not run from it, as it seeks to destroy you. However, you do not have to let that happen. The choice is yours. Choose a strong mentality, and you will persevere at all levels.

It all begins with knowing yourself. Investing in yourself to be ready for those challenging moments. How do people know themselves? How do you know that you know yourself? Where does someone even begin? Well, it starts and ends with you setting aside the time. To build perseverance focus on the two P’s: Preparation and Practice.

Preparation is all about getting ready. The key to your preparation is knowing yourself on a deeper level, with the ultimate goal of building up your perseverance so that you are able to weather the storms of life. Prepare yourself by focusing on having quiet time with yourself. I know it sounds a little silly to have quiet time with yourself, especially since life is crazy, with all the moving parts. But set aside some time to be in a quiet place in your mind.

To do this quiet time daily, find a place that works for you. Decide on how long that quiet time will last. It could be for five minutes or fifty minutes. The point is, make the time; no excuses on this one. In your quiet time there are a few different tools you can use to help you: journal, pray, or meditate. Everyone is designed differently so you decide on the tools best for you. My advice is to focus on using one tool at a time. This will allow you to hone in on which tool works best for you. Preparation may get you ready, but it's in Practice that the real growth lies.

There is no better place to grow your perseverance than through real-life practice. The good news about this one is that you will have plenty of practice opportunities. Life is full of challenges for everyone. No one can escape the reality of these adversities. The key is knowing these challenges lie ahead. They will give you opportunities to practice your perseverance. Relish the easy opportunities to grow. Other times, these challenges will seem unbearable.

It is important that we do not run from situations that are seemingly unbearable. Seize the opportunities to practice in real-life scenarios with perseverance. Discover your perseverance thresholds. Understand your weaknesses, as we all have them. Do not fear challenges. Whether it’s a difficult conversation you know you need to have or a decision whose consequences you know will be challenging, do what is right by running towards the challenges. Look them dead in the eye and face those fears. Be a titan for your ultimate goals. Persevere at all costs.

Now, how great would that be, to be at the end of your life—knowing that you persevered through all life's challenges with max effort? Knowing that you tapped into every fiber in your body, mind, and soul to achieve your goals in this life? That you were relentlessly unstoppable? Achieving your goals is going to take constant perseverance. Put in the work to know yourself, to understand who you are at your core. Believe in yourself regardless of the challenges that are in front of you. If you never give up on yourself, you are a winner.