Without Perseverance Only Failure is Possible

 

This is just a portion in my new book "Becoming Yourself" Welcome for comments opinions

Using or utilizing what you have given is one thing but continuing doing it is completely another thing. If you are keen enough you may have notice that the principle of use doesn’t say for how long. It doesn’t state for how long you shall go on using that which you have. But it insisted that if you do not use it well then it shall be taken from you. In other words you should never stop using what you have until you are empty.

By the way why should you stop using what you have while it’s still able to produce good results? All what you should always do is keeping on improving yourself, develop your skills, your arts and science of doing what you are doing; keep yourself up-to-date. Don’t do something which is not your passion, something which you were just forced to do but something that you feel from your inside, you have imaginations seeing yourself doing great.

My mind was enlightened on the issue of perseverance and persistence when I read the Scriptures. If you have not told when or where to end or stop then you better continues until you are told so. The King of Israel went to Elisha the prophet of God crying to him because his enemies were about to attack him. Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows”, and he did so. Elisha continued the instructions, he said, “Take the bow in your hands”, When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hand. “Open the east window”, he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and the king of Israel shot.

Then Elisha declared victorious words saying, “The LORD’s arrow of victory over Aram!” and he told the king that, he will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek”. After all these series of instructions then Elisha continued with another instruction. He said, “Take the arrows”, and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground”.

Now, imagine suppose you were the one given the last instruction of striking the ground. How would you have done? How many times you would have struck the ground? Would you have struck one or all the arrows and stop or you would have struck all the arrows and pick them to strike again?

So Elisha told the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”. He struck it three times and stopped. Elisha the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times. (2 Kings 13:15-19 NIV) What Jehoash king of Israel did and Elisha’s reaction, blew up my mind. Because his enemies are the one who destroyed many of Israel soldiers and made them like the dust of threshing time sometimes in the past. Now the king is going to face the same enemies and he now he know that he will defeat them not more than three time! You can imagine how this king felt especially when he thought about the simple task of striking the ground and win the battle.

The results of what the king of Israel did usually develop sympathy to many. How will you feel when you know for sure that you are going to win the battle only three times and get defeated the other times? And you don’t know how many times your enemy will attack you. What if Elisha would have given the king another chance to repeat the same task? Sometimes we do things lightly simply because we are not aware on how significant they are. What you do today is important because it has effect on your future, so you better be smart.

Many are defeated with life not because they are incapable of defeating it but because they stop struggling. And you will get defeated simply because you failed to continue doing something very simple but yet very important.

Using what you have needs to be done persistently, continually to have full effect and desired results. The king of Israel had some arrows in his hands, he had a bow and I am sure he was not exhausted to the extent of being unable to strike more arrows. But the simple and yet a critical question is why he stopped? He had all the resources to go on, but why he decided to stop? I need you to think critically and come up with the suggestions why do you think he stopped? Did he plan at the beginning to stop after striking the third arrow?

There might be many postulations about it but the mindset is very important. The mind can perform and make decisions sometimes without even your conscious thinking simply because it has conditioned to act and react in certain ways. Mindset is a fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines your responses to situations and your interpretations of those situations. So you can act or do something and when asked why, it’s as if it’s not you. It’s because you definitely don’t know why you did it. And you cannot say you didn’t know because if that would have been the case you would have asked. Conditioned mindset! If the king would have reasons why he stopped he would appealed to Elisha, so that he will not be defeated but he didn’t appealed, he kept quiet. He didn’t know why he quitted.

When you become yourself, you will not do things because ‘they are used to be done that way’ but because you know what you are doing, why you do and you are determined to do it. And again conditioned mindset in such a state of being really you, it’s advantageous. You pick up something out of many and it’s a right one. Why? Because the mind has been conditioned to observe, analyze quickly, perceive positively and interpret correctly. That’s the privilege of becoming or being yourself.

Thomas Edison who is among the greatest inventors went through a hundreds of experiments on trying to make electric light. His experiments seems as failures before he was successful made an electric light. But finally he succeeded to make an electric light. What if he would have quit after three experiments or four or ten for instance?

Abraham Lincoln became one of the greatest governmental and moral leaders in American history. His achievements didn’t happen easily but he had to be determined to move forward without end. He run for legislature he failed. He run for the Senate he failed. He run for the Congress he failed. He got engaged, his fiancé died. He went insane. They put him in insane asylum and he stayed for a year. He came out and he runs for the Senate, he failed. He runs for the Congress again he failed. Then he run for president and he won. What if he stopped after failed for the Congress or senate?

In your journey to greatness you will obvious face temporary defeats. When they do occur quitting is not an option but to forge ahead. Review your plans and strategies. You can modify your strategies or tactics and sometimes even replacing your part of plan or the whole plan. Seek information and work on them. Perseverance is important in life.

George Adriano