Daily blog #34

Persistence

Every day we are presented with opportunities to grow, sometimes in unexpected ways. I’ve been committed to learning Portuguese for over a year although sadly you probably wouldn’t know hearing my shitty attempts. Recently the unexpected happened, I ran into a lesson which I could not for the life of me get past. For over a month I was stuck on this lesson as if I was on a schedule to wake up and fail every day before getting on with my day. Nevertheless I channeled my inner Carol Dweck and accepted the challenge. I tried studying more, I read the material they offered over and over all which seemed to have no effect… One day I woke up at my usual time of three thirty AM and through the course of my morning routine pulled out my Duolingo app and started going through my lesson. To my surprise I was going through the test with relative ease and before I knew it, I was a few points away from passing and then… I passed! I was then greeted by that wonderful feeling of accomplishment that makes you want to jump around and fist pump or not social distance. What I noticed about the experience was that it wasn’t a specific thing I did, the test cane naturally but if I had not been persistent the past month I can only suspect the result would’ve been different. Too often I see myself and others searching for “the solution” for something rather than understanding that some things come down to time and effort. While problem solving and finding solutions is important we must never let our persistence falter. Some things just come down to consistency and repetition although we instinctively want an easier way. If we can just “keep hammering” as Cameron Haynes says, it will result in moments like where I passed the test feeling both elated and surprised. We all have it in us to be great and do great things or at least feel great but without persistence our efforts will surely be in vain, to quote the famous Nike 87’ campaign, JUST DO IT. Over and over until you succeed.