“Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.” - Stonewall Jackson

What is Perseverance?



Cultural Perspective:
The metaphor to describe Japan is the wet garden. The fluid yet essentially unchanging nature of the water in the pond’s garden illustrates how the Japanese perceive their culture’s change over time. Water’s composition of tiny, individual droplets that have power only when combined with others parallels the Japanese view of the individual. The Japanese believe it takes a great deal of self-discipline to achieve harmony with the natural world, but that individuals have the potential to achieve this harmony through self-mastery and discipline of the spirit, or seishin. This value is represented in the painstaking discipline with which the Japanese gardener continually seeks to improve the gardens natural beauty. The Japanese tend to “flow with the current” over and around small obstacles of differences in opinion, which makes them more tolerant of other viewpoints and given them a more relative, less rational view of right and wrong. (Gannon, M. J. (2001). Working across cultures: Applications and exercises. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publication, Inc. pp. 121-123)

Quotes about Perseverance:

  • The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher
  • There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure. ~Colin Powell
  • Never, never, never give up. ~Sir Winston Churchill

Reflective question about Perseverance:

  • When has perseverance paid off for you?
  • What did you work hard for?
  • Who do you admire because of his or her perserverance?