Remember the Four P’s: Perseverance, Persistence, Patience, and Perspiration!!

Vinny Khinda

June 24, 2020

Here is a story of two frogs. One of them was fat and the other one was skinny. One fine day, when they were looking for food, they inadvertently jumped into a bucket of milk. Now, as the sides were too slippery they were unable to get out. The fat frog spoke to the skinny frog, “Brother, swimming is of no use anymore. We’re going to drown, so we should give up.” The skinny frog looked in awe and replied, “Hold on my friend, keep swimming. Someone will get us out.” And they continued paddling for some time.

After a while, the fat frog said, “Brother, there’s no use. I’m really exhausted now. I think I should stop paddling. We’re doomed. There’s no way out of here.” But the skinny frog said, “Keep trying. Keep swimming. Keep paddling.” Another couple of hours passed.

The fat frog said, “This is nonsense, I can’t go on any longer. We’re going to die anyway. What’s the use?” And then he gave up and drowned in the milk. But the skinny frog kept on paddling.

Ten minutes later, the skinny frog felt something solid beneath his feet. He had churned the milk into butter. Soon he found himself sitting atop the mound of butter. And then he jumped out of the bucket.

The moral of this little inspiring story: Those who don’t give up and persevere may be in for a pleasant surprise!

Lets start with the first two of the three P’s. The traditional definition of Perseverance is – “persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” Persistence is a synonym of perseverance, so is doggedness. Like many other English Words,  perseverance derives from  the Latin Words,  Per,  meaning Through, and Severus, meaning Severe, that is, “through the severe and difficult.” Perseverance is persistence in sticking to a plan. While the path to success is heavily strewn with obstacles, your ability to persevere improves your odds of winning.

How many times have you started an important task or project but gave up when faced with a challenge? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself how much you would have achieved if you hadn’t given up? How many times have you made it to the starting line, but not the finish line? Have you ever craved to experience that feeling of success, instead of getting excited by just watching others? Have you been tempted to go back into your comfort zone because of the unrelenting challenges? If yes, ask yourself these questions: “Will I benefit more from giving up and as a result, reaching nowhere? Or should I persevere, and try to accomplish my desired results?”

Unfortunately, too many people give up on their hopes, dreams, and goals so easily, they do not persevere. On a personal note, one of my biggest fears is dying with regret. The regret of not knowing what I could have accomplished but didn’t because I was skeptical, didn’t work hard enough, gave up when faced with criticism or if it got tough.

Winston Churchill articulated it particularly well when he said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” When you are swamped by misfortunes, disappointments, and snags, it is tempting to just flounder in wretchedness and surrender. That essentially doesn’t bode well, as Churchill noted. You need to continue moving, planning your next moves and activities and following up on them with certainty and persistence.

Former US Presidential candidate and motivational speaker Ross Perot says, “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.” Newt Gingrich, the American politician, author, and historian who served as the 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, says, “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” Napoleon Hill, the American self-help author, known best for his book Think and Grow Rich which is among the 10 best selling self-help books of all times, makes an incredible observation when he says, “No man is ever whipped until he quits – in his own mind.”

Patience is the vital third component of the first of the three P’s. So how do we define patience? Well, it is “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering, without becoming annoyed or anxious.”

Patience is that ‘pause‘ that helps us get our thoughts back in order, and our feelings under control. It gives us the persistence to carry out things that will lead us to our long term goals. It helps us realize that success will come to those who keep trying.

Robust willpower is a massive shot in the arm as far as perseverance/persistence go. In 2011, 27% of respondents of a survey in the US reported that lack of willpower was the most significant barrier to change.

Studies have found that those with willpower are ultimately more successful. In the well-known marshmallow test, a sample of children were given a marshmallow each and told that if they didn’t eat it, they’d get more marshmallows, but if they ate the marshmallow straight away, they wouldn’t get any more. Those who exercised willpower were found to achieve better grades and had better careers as they went through life.

According to most psychological scientists, willpower can be defined as:

• The ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.
• The capacity to override an unwanted thought, feeling or impulse.
• The ability to employ a “cool” cognitive system of behavior rather than a “hot” emotional system.
• Conscious, effortful regulation of the self by the self.

This brings us to the last and the ‘Fourth P‘, the Perspiration. Without perspiration, the first three P’s mean nothing. Perspiration as an expression, is a lovely way to refer to anything which is, nothing but, sheer hard work.

People get brilliant results primarily by working hard and not because they have had special inborn powers. Who could have said it better than the great Thomas Edison when he remarked that, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Great accomplishments depend not so much on ingenuity as on hard work.“

Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player ever, never stopped practicing — even when he was excelling at the highest levels. Jordan spent the off-season shooting hundreds of jump shots each day. Phil Jackson, who coached him for many years, said, Jordan became great not because of his inherent skills, but because he understood how hard he needed to work to succeed.

Another legendary tale in perspiration is that of Pele, the greatest football player to have walked the planet. He wasn’t a ‘natural born’ incredible soccer player. Only through hard work did he become the legend we know of him today. Pele was very poor, had no soccer shoes, and learned a lot of his skills on the streets of Brazil playing barefoot and working very hard to develop a “freestyle” of soccer that he was passionate about.

Lets have a donkey story. A man and his donkey were on the way to grazing when the donkey fell into a huge pit. The man was shaken and tried hard to pull his favorite donkey up to the ground.

Despite his strenuous attempts, he failed to bring the donkey back. But he could not leave the donkey to starve and die with pain for days. So he decided to bury him alive and make his death smoother.

He thus started pouring soil over the donkey in the pit. When he poured the soil, the donkey felt the load on his back, shook it off and stepped on it.

He did the same every time the soil was poured on his body. In the end, he reached the ground level and easily walked away to graze in the green pastures.

The donkey in the pit has taught us that we must not choose to live with our problems. We just need to shake ’em off, stand on them and step up in life after drawing lessons. Every bad experience is a new learning. So get the positives out of it and work towards your goals with perseverance being the driving force.

And its time to wind up with yet another frog story.

A group of frogs were traveling through woods and two of them accidentally fell into a pit. The other frogs understood how deep the pit was and as they sat at the edge of it and looked down at their friends, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.

The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might but failed many times. The crowd of frogs kept yelling at them to stop the pain and just die.

Eventually, one frog heard the other frogs and decided to stop trying and fell to his death. However, the other frog went on trying, he jumped even harder and finally managed to reach the top.

The other frogs asked him, “Did you not hear us?” He explained that he was partially deaf, could hardly hear, and thought other frogs were encouraging him the entire time.

Those who never give up often find themselves handsomely rewarded for their persistence. Also, the good old saying, God helps those who help themselves.

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