perseverance Essay Examples

Perseverance Essay Example

Perseverance is a virtue that holds true to courageous people, essentially suggesting that in this face of difficulty, one continues to carry out their activity. It is each act of persisting in something undertaken despite the difficulties and is a tough quality in personality. The ideas of perseverance have been preached ever since the times of Plato, and are key features of a lot of modern philosophy too. Perseverance is tough, not for faint hearted. In order for someone to persevere through something, one needs to toughen up in the face of all the problems they’re experiencing and work hard in order to get through their difficulties. Perseverance takes a certain amount of will and definitely requires a sustained amount of effort. If you are a weak individual who likes to give up, you will never persevere. Very commonly a lot of people who play sport learn to persevere. Sport is largely about competition and so there are often obstacles in the face of winning which can hold one back, but professional sportsmen know they need never give up and keep going, even if they’re losing. If you think positive and power through, you’ll get through it out on top. I remember a time when I myself was involved in a sport, playing in my local league at college. It was a time that required put in a lot of hours in the gym and on the field, so I felt determined not to let myself and my team down, whatever the cost. The game was soccer, and this was our penultimate match of the season. Before we started, we were in high hopes and many of us forecast that we were going to win and top the season. We thought it would all be smooth sailing from when the whistle was blown. Little did we know that, in fact, it would take a whole lot more than just smooth sailing and my role as team captain would be put into question, with a lot of stress on my side. We began on a high and worked well as a team, tossing the ball all around the pitch like there was no tomorrow. We felt like real pro players, passing and dribbling in perfect synchrony, without an error in sight. However, at one point just before halftime, our lead striker was viciously and rather maliciously sly tackled down to the ground, being mowed down by a member of the opposition, and low and behold he was stretchered off the pitch. The game was over for poor David, but even though we were now at a significant disadvantage, we persevered through the tragedy, kept calm and carried on. Then, our world was turned upside down as an incorrect tackle in the penalty box by one of our own, led to a penalty kick and a red card for our player. We were both two people and one goal down. Things were not looking good for us and then another two goals from the opposition – this was not the outcome we were hoping for and this was only just before halftime. It was looking like we would lose the season but, during the halftime break, I remembered that word “perseverance” and so decided to give my team a motivational speech about it. I suggested that it looked bad for sure, but that we must never give up. Each of us has individual goals and can work well together to achieve the intent of the team. Just because things aren’t looking our best, this doesn’t mean we can’t win. We must persevere through the tough times and power through to do the best we can. This positive outlook helped us all. I could see that despite all the problems, all the team were persevering and giving it their all. So what was the outcome of this? Well, I can tell you now that not only did we play our best, we played our VERY best and actually came out on top after all! The final score 4.2 to us and a very well deserved score it was. But none of this would have happened without persevering through the tough times and doing the best we could. It was thanks to each individual’s hard work and positive attitude that we were able to persevere and in the end, it worked out better than we could have hoped for, becoming the champions of the season. Perseverance helps grow you as a person, just like it grew us all individually and as a team. A person, who can persevere through tough times, shows something good about that personality – it lets you know that they can be trusted and looked up to. The next time you’re stuck in a rut or down in the dumps with a goal in mind but a cloudy outlook, stop, think and carry on, persevering through the bad to get to the good in the end.