Hello all,
Today we are talking about perseverance. Every one of us knows this: started, canceled. Started again, this time I can do it, stopped again. Tried something else, little games, like : "...every time,..." or a little race against my own clock, "..I'll have it done by 9!" - and again nothing. Cancelled.
There it is about losing weight, gaining weight, kicking habits, cigarettes away, more sports, more time for reading, quality time for the kids. Learning the guitar, but again something came up. With all our might, we fight against this dam that always wants to collapse: obligations. Expectations, only-quite-shortly, coming-immediately, and... "off". Broken off.
My coach ear hears this word perseverance a lot. Mostly as a complaint. Often as a feeling of being overwhelmed and a self-imposed, extra obligation. Sometimes just to withstand a self-image that someone else may have invented. "Who is actually talking..." Is always a good first question in coaching. I give it a lot of attention, the attention it deserves, considering what a brazen energy hog it is.
Not only that every attempt - i.e. setting up a challenge - is already energy-sapping, no the justifications, the excuses, the frustration and the resistance to just not give the frustration any more sugar...simply maddening.
My own experience with this monster of perseverance has given me the opportunity to put it in a different light.
I was just about to repaint my office once again (a mania) and thought about the pre-paint. Do I have to, don't I? And then a thought came to me. Maybe perseverance is something like the primer, an important step for any process of change? Maybe we give too much importance to this one step!
The realization that perseverance could be an inner attitude and not a high performance act has changed a lot for me. Maybe I am preparing the ground first before anything can grow? Yes, that's how I see it now.
I am slowly bringing the new into my life, maybe you could say energetically. I imagine what it would be like if.... Nothing else, nothing at all.
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