It doesn’t matter if I have been the greatest of athletes or at the top of the business world.  It doesn’t matter if I'm unemployed or if I’m out of shape.  It doesn’t matter what I’ve done before today.  The only thing that matters is what I do next.  This forward focus is what perseverance is at its root.  The past that you experienced, your history, your successes or your failures do not matter at this moment in time; nothing from your past matters.  The only thing that matters is what do you do with this moment and what do you do next. 

Everyone has the same choice to make with their forward-looking moments in time.  Each of us gets to decide what to do next.  This decision is wholly independent of your past.  It is independent of your successes from yesterday and your failures from last week.  It is separate, different and disconnected from your marks in school, your layoff, speeding ticket and half-marathon that you completed last month.  What has occurred in your past is just that, your past.  There are lessons to be learned from your past and improvements that can be made, but none of it is relevant to the decision that you have to make in the present moment; what to do next.  This moment of decision, the moment that we all have each day is the opportunity to define your greatest future or to relive your sullen past.

I believe it was Epictetus, the ancient Greek / Roman stoic philosopher who was widely known to espouse the philosophy of separating what we can control from those things we cannot.  And for those things that we cannot control, there is no sense wasting any energy or emotion on them.  They will be what they will be, and there is no influence we can exert to change the outcome or the result.  And because these events and outcomes occur independent of our actions, so should our emotional response to the issues.  For example, if something is stolen from you or something in your house is broken, these conditions are independent of your actions, and so should your response be when they are discovered.  There is no benefit being upset and angry when you find out that you have been robbed — the action has already occurred and the emotional response doesn’t change that.  Epictetus has noted that those that can transcend the emotional reaction to things beyond their control will be able to better focus on a better response and channel their energy into actions that they can take to affect desired outcomes.

For example, the beat-down that you received at work yesterday can only influence your decisions about what to do next only if you let it.  As does the failure in your last training session.  But the successes act the same as well, you cannot rest on your laurels of yesterday's progress and accomplishments and believe that yesterdays achievements will mean you will be successful today.  Today is a new day and a fresh start and is an opportunity to define your future and your success.

I was reminded recently of the concept that “the ability to shape our destiny lies in our ability to persevere through the unknown.” I believe this statement to be true as it has represented itself regularly throughout my life and those of others as well.  Its essence is simple, that while we may not know what is about to come, we shape our future by deciding not to give up, but to persevere through the uncertainty and accomplish our goals in spite of the unknown. And as we’ve seen earlier [note that the chapter on mindset needs to precede this one], perseverance is first a foremost, a mindset.

I think this shows up in all of our lives.  For example, when you watch an infant learn to walk for the first time, you see a degree of struggle and resilience to succeed.  You see a determination and perseverance to try and try again until they are successful in standing and then walking.  The infant is not worried about what happens after they start walking, only that walking is part of the future they are determined to shape and develop.  The infant also doesn’t give up in trying to walk after only a few unsuccessful attempts but continues to strive in spite of the failures and setbacks.  The infant doesn’t ever give up but perseveres until successful. 

And I think everything in our lives occurs similarly as the example of the infant learning to walk.  The only difference is that our consciousness often intervenes and provides a whole list of reasons why we should give up, quit, feel embarrassed or ashamed.  Our consciousness often sabotages the pursuit of our most significant goals and most important passions.  And too often, as a result, we do give up.  We give up because we’re not good at it, or we tried it a couple of times and but can’t figure it out.  We quit or don’t even try, because we are afraid of looking silly or foolish, or are concerned with what other people may say or think.

If we put these reasons in the context of the infant learning to walk, we would stop the child from future attempts to walk after only a few tries.  How silly would this be to prevent a child from learning to walk after only a few tries!  In fact, we have much to learn from this child.  Their perseverance and focus in learning and succeeding in spite of failures and setbacks is a life lesson that we all need to be refreshed; that we all need to remember and to apply. 

So think about your passions, your goals, or just the things you want to try, do, and experience, and then go and do them.  Don’t worry about what others might say, or if it doesn’t fit the socially accepted definition of success, do it anyway.  And don’t give up.  Rally around the image of the infant learning to walk, they don’t give up; they try and try again until they succeed.  It may be frustrating as you first set out.  And you will likely fail, fall down, or even get hurt.  But pick yourself up, analyze what you did, and try again.  And keep working until you succeed.

As an adult, you can use your intellect to help you in the pursuit of your desires.  You can learn in a much better way than merely trial and error (like the child learning to walk does).  You can employ a variety of learning mechanisms to help accelerate your learning process and reduce the time necessary to succeed (and the number of stumbles and failures along the way).  You can employ research, instruction, coaching, and a mentor to help you achieve.  You can get feedback from others and consciously reflect upon your progress to guide the adjustments you need to get better and to succeed.  And then you can try a new plan and record the outcome.  You can be much more rigorous in your experimental approach than simple trial and error.  And hopefully, this will help you to succeed much faster.

The lessons from the child, however, are so relevant.  While a child can get frustrated very quickly and only after a few unsuccessful attempts, they also get past their frustration quickly and are much quicker to try again than adults.  While adults hang onto to their failure for a long time and often use it as a barrier to prevent trying again, children often don’t follow this path.  And as parents, we coach and mentor children to try again and to work through their frustration.  Frustration is a natural part of the learning process and is part of the journey to fulfillment. We must learn to embrace our disappointment and use it to fuel our perseverance.

The inspiration to succeed is all around us.  The stories are many, and while sometimes we like to think these success stories are the result of genetic differences, financial savvy, or the “lucky break,” the truth is that the perseverance to succeed is simply the only difference; which means we all can succeed.  There is no shortage of success; it is not in short supply or at risk of being rationed.  It is available to all who are willing to face their frustrations and to those willing to persevere, and here are a just few examples:

1. •Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, after being cut by the last professional football team he played for, had a total of 7 dollars to his name when he returned to Miami in 1995.
   

2. •Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman started Nike with a contract to sell Japanese made track shoes in the United States and a waffle iron to make their own first shoes.
   

3. •J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book while a single mother and on welfare, living in a bleak apartment while going through a divorce.  Twelve different publishers rejected her first manuscript before it was picked up and published.
   

4. •At age 11, Lionel Messi was cut from his team because a growth hormone deficiency left him smaller than the other kids.
   

5. •At age 65 Colonel Sanders didn’t let 1009 rejections from various restaurants to buy his chicken recipe stop him from realizing his dream, he started his own restaurant.
   

6. •The novelist, Stephen King, had his first novel “Carrie” rejected 30 times before it was finally published.
   

7. •Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team; and went on to become one of the greatest NBA players ever.
   

8. •Tracy down the street was told by her high school guidance counsellor that “University wasn’t for her.”  At age 25 she went back to school and completed a degree.
   

9. •And John at work trained for two years before completing his first marathon.
   

Perseverance is personal and its a choice that we all have to make.  If we want to achieve the success that we desire and to pursue our passions, we must be willing to commit to persevering through the failures.  Our destiny resides in our perseverance, for it is what transcends the unknown and shapes our consciousness to excel.

In May 1992, only 10 weeks before the start of the summer Olympics in Barcelona Spain, Silken Laumann, the odds-on favourite to be the gold medal winner in the single sculls was involved in a horrific accident in which another boat crashed into her that broke her fibula and ankle and shredded the muscles in her right leg.  For many, this adversity and set back would be too much to bear just weeks before the most critical competitive event of your career.  The last few weeks leading up to a significant competition are crucially important.  Your training for the years previous to this is all coming together to ensure that you are hitting your peak at just the right time.  Injury and illness can derail your entire sporting career if it occurs in this time frame.

For Silken Laumann, however, it was not the end of her sporting career.  It was merely another challenge, another obstacle and another adversity to overcome.  The injury directly tested her resolve and challenged her determination to prevail.  For many of us, we would have given up; would have resigned ourselves to the fact that we could not recover from this injury and perform at the peak of our ability in only less than three months away.  But this was not Silken Laumann.  She was not going to give up and throw the towel in  -- even if many expected her to do so.  Silken steeled her focus and took on the challenge of this adversity, and she was going to beat it.

After five operations and a total of 3 weeks in the hospital, Silken Laumann was back on the water training by late June.  And by the start of her event on August 2, 1992, she was ready to compete.  It was a testament to her perseverance, her dedication, and her commitment that she was even in Spain for the Olympics at all, let alone ready to compete with the world’s most elite athletes in a most demanding physical and emotional sport.  At the end of the competition, Silken won the bronze medal in the Women’s Single Sculls and was the flag bearer for Canada in the closing ceremonies of the Games.

What makes Silken Laumann’s accomplishments even more amazing is when you discover the adversity that she overcame to be an Olympic level athlete in the first place.  As Laumann describes in her book “Unsinkable,” she discusses the challenges of her childhood and the dysfunction within her family including physical and emotional abuse.  She talks about her struggles with mental illness, anorexia, and self-harm.  Her story of overcoming adversity and personal resiliency is inspiring.  And we are left to wonder if sports and her dedication and perseverance in accomplishing so much in her rowing career is a result of the lessons learned during her childhood, or in spite of those experiences.

I wonder, what level of perseverance, dedication and discipline do each of us have in pursuing our goals and objectives?  I agree that most of us likely do not have Silken Laumann level of commitment, but we could have!  To those that dare to be great, that work harder and commit themselves entirely to the accomplishment of their goals; the rewards do come.  However, too many people complain too much about the difficulties that they have, or how they don’t have the time, the money, or the intellect to accomplish their goals.  If you want to achieve it, you must overcome adversity; you must find ways to climb over, go around or through the obstacles that come your way.  The passion of your goals must fuel you in your darkest days until you accomplish the results that you desire.

Ask yourself what level of commitment are you bringing to the accomplishment of your goals?  Are you committing fully?  Is there another level of commitment that you can bring to your game?  What more can you do?  The pain of achieving excellence is part of the struggle of achievement; it is the spice that makes the taste of accomplishment even better and even a little sweeter, and it is a whole lot better than the pain associated with regret and not trying hard enough.  When faced with adversity or challenge, there is only one choice: improvise, adapt and overcome.