I believe the personal quality of perseverance
is a cornerstone of my character. It has
pushed me forward when I felt like giving up.
There have been times in my life when I have thought of quitting because
I felt that a “victory”, whether real or perceived, was no longer worth the
adversity of achieving it. All of these
victories required that I fight a “battle”.
The battles have been physical – enduring pain, fatigue, and so
forth. The battles have also been
emotional – fighting personal fears or being told, “You’re not good enough”. Yet, I have won many battles (unfortunately not
all) because I have persevered. This is because
I have held a belief and said to myself, “the ordinary person cannot or will
not endure this, but you are not ordinary”.
I will not argue whether this is fact or not but it has definitely helped
me.
I believe that having intellectual
perseverance is just as important, but even more so in my personal growth as a student
and an intellectual. One given definition
of an intellectual is a person who is “rational” and “…who relies on intellect
rather than on emotions or feelings (Dictionary.com, n.d.) .” However, Nosich (2012) asserts that critical
think is not emotionless – there must be a reasonable balance between data and
emotions. Having intellectual perseverance
will help me fight my battles against being ignorant, complacent, and undisciplined. First, I must fight my own ignorance, which
is, acting on assumptions or beliefs rather than on facts. An example of this is committing a
fallacy. I have to use critical thinking
to know that the “truths” are out there and to know them through research, study,
and analysis. Second, I must fight complacency. As a student, there is a temptation to feel
that the academic effort I have put in is “good enough”. How many times have you heard someone utter
the words, “C’s get degrees!” I have at
times before studied in a manner (memorizing) to simply pass a test. I have to have the intellectual perseverance
to understand that my academic studies are more than a means to an end, but that
the knowledge I gain will allow me to solve problems in all aspects of my
life. Lastly, I must remain disciplined
in my efforts to achieve my educational goals.
The sacrifices in pursuing a degree are self-imposed and I may question
why I even do it at all. I have friends and
colleagues that put off higher education because they “don’t have the time”. We all have limited time. It’s a matter of what activities we choose to
take up that time. Dr. AnnMaria Demars,
a former world Judo champion and now a successful entrepreneur was once asked
if there was a connection amongst her successes and she replied, “There is.
It's perseverance. It's being able to give up what you want now for what you
want most, not just one time, but many many times (Demars, 2015) .”
Intellectual Perseverance also
relates to my concept of a good leader. A
favorite quote that comes to mind is that of the respected military leader and
Medal of Honor recipient, Admiral (ADM) James Stockdale. ADM Stockdale once said, “The test of
character is not ‘hanging in there’ when you expect a light at the end of the
tunnel, but performance of duty and persistence of example when you know that
no light is coming (Department of the Army, 1985) .” I can imagine that ADM Stockdale fortified his
belief of perseverance from his own experience as a prisoner of war (POW)
during the Vietnam conflict. However, as
leaders must have the physical perseverance to take physical action, they must
also the intellectual perseverance to make the tough decisions and to do the “right”
things i.e. morally and ethically.
References
Demars,
D. A. (2015, August 26). Retrieved from drannmaria.blogspot.com:
http://drannmaria.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html
Department of the
Army. (1985). Leadership statement and qoutes. Washington, D.C.:
Department of the Army.
Dictionary.com. (n.d.).
Retrieved from www.dictionary.com:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/intellectual
Nosich, G. M.
(2012). Learning to think things through. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
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