Press On and On and On

Perseverance

What are your core principles? One of mine is to never give up. I am grateful that perseverance is somehow resident deep in my soul. Winston Churchill had it too. Remember the famous line in his speech where he said “never, never, never give up”?

When we, like Churchill, are experiencing overwhelming attack or bad odds we must keep our face square into the wind and press on. Showing persistence will also encourage those who look to us. Seeing our example, they are likely to mimic our perseverance and display this character quality to those they interact with. 

Newt Gingrich defines it this way. "Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."

To Tell the Truth

I remember the first time I experienced injustice. It was when the grumpy old man at the end of my boyhood street accused me of throwing a rock at his house. It seems that a few of the neighbor kids has committed the heinous act and conspired to blame it on me. When he accused me I felt indignation such as I had never experienced. I had received injustice!

 Superman was known for his mantra “truth, justice and the American way.” Let’s be “super people” and known as a lovers of truth and justice and let’s demonstrate that to those near us. We also should be known as people who give others the benefit of the doubt because sometimes we don’t know or can’t get all the facts. 

"Get the facts first, then you can distort them all you like." Mark Twain

Finding Peace and Letting Go

Peace 

Rudy Giuliani in his book “Leadership” describes how he had to stay calm in the face of fear on September 11, 2001.  Because others were watching him and gauging their emotions on what they saw in him, his projecting peace was critical to thousands of other New Yorkers.

While we may not have as large an audience, our visible irritability does affect those in our corner of the marketplace and every place.  Every day we face numerous opportunities to loose our peace.  When we do, for the sake of others, it is critical that we adopt a poker face and avoid dumping our problem on others like a cooler filled with Gatorade.  There really is peace in learning to control our emotions, dealing with what we can deal with and forgetting the rest. 

Letting Go

Think about the most unpleasant relationship you have ever had.  Maybe it was a coworker, former spouse, or a rebellious child.  Did you ever catch yourself keeping a mental count of all the times they had hurt or disappointed you?  I have found that there is great virtue in not counting but instead letting go.

Think about it.  What besides an ulcer do you gain from keeping track of all that bad stuff?  Maybe a migraine headache?  Most bad things others do to us, from something stupid to something deliberate and calculated, are best handled when we let go.