What Are Benefits of Perseverance?

What are the benefits of perseverance?

Here at True Balance Karate in Downers Grove, Illinois, we have a social-emotional learning program called True Character.

I’m Master H, owner and chief instructor here at the studio. I have two master’s degrees in education. And what that means is we have developed a comprehensive curriculum that best meets the needs of our youngest to our oldest students here at the studio.

Why Talk About Perseverance?

And this month, we’re talking about perseverance. We’re talking about pushing through. We’re talking about when the work gets tough, we don’t give up.

And when we are pushing through, there’s a lot of benefits to that. There’s a lot of things that we learn about ourselves.

There’s an interesting quote that sometimes comes across my social media feeds about how we have survived 100% of our hard days already.

And that’s perseverance right there, is recognizing when it’s gotten hard and how we’ve survived it 100% of the time because we’ve set goals, we’ve had supporters, we pushed through, we’ve kept going, we’ve had good character, we’ve shown empathy and confidence and used our self-esteem and done all of these things that help set us up for success.

Other Things That Grow Our Character

And we started off in October talking about self-esteem and how we want to feel good about ourselves and how we can build our confidence that builds our self-esteem.

And we moved into courtesy and how when we’re showing those kind words and using those good manners, it also helps to build that self-esteem and it also helps to build respect for those around us.

And since it was Thanksgiving, it’s a good thing to use your manners throughout the holiday season.

And it’s December. We’ve had a lot of extra things happening in December. A lot of extra celebrations, a lot of extra schoolwork, a lot of extra projects that might be getting finished at work. A lot of things that have been happening in December.

And when we’re persevering through different seasons in our life, as my life coach likes to talk about it, we look for ways to set ourselves up for success. We look for ways to set our goals and push through them and things like that.

And some of the benefits that we find with perseverance is that our character grows. We walk around a little bit taller. We walk around a little bit wiser. We walk around with a little bit more confidence, with more self-control.

Outside Recognition

But we also have others recognizing it in us. We have others that will walk over and say, “Hey, you’re doing what I want to do. How’d you get there?”

And then they ask us questions when we’ve persevered and set our goals and achieved our goals. So our character grows not just within ourselves, but in awareness from others around us.

Our own confidence grows. Our trust in ourselves grows. If I was to set a goal and then quit halfway through it, those around me might not trust me anymore, “She just quits. Why would I trust that master H is going to say anything she says she’s going to do, she just quits.” I lose some of that trust along the way.

But when I said I’m going to do something and I persevere through it and I’ve demonstrated that I’ve done it and can do it, trust gets built.

Trust with myself that I know I can. Trust with other people that were counting on me for doing something.

Building Our Foundation

So it’s that kind of thing that when the work gets tough and we don’t give up, we’re actually building a positive foundation.

We’re actually building good character. We’re building concentration within ourselves. We’re building trust with people and with ourselves that we can handle it.

And there’s a lot of benefits to persevering. There’s a lot of benefits to asking for help. Persevering does not mean you do it all yourself. Persevering means you keep going when it gets tough.

And if that means you keep going but you ask for help, that’s a good thing. That’s a positive thing. That is a thing that helps everyone because we all want to be there for each other.

Asking For Help

When I talk with my nutrition coach, life coach person, she talks about the bandwidth and making sure that you’re advocating for yourself in a positive way so that you can have a longer bandwidth to be able to help those around you.

And if things are tough, reaching out to those who can help you.

My students that are still in school are learning how to do that by asking questions like, “This homework is tough for me, but I don’t want to give up because I want to get it completed, but I need help.”

Well, now we need to apply it to other things, learning a video game, picking up a new sport, learning an instrument, learning how to draw or act or do lighting on a theater stage.

So we apply it to other things and it grows.

For my adults, sometimes it’s not easy to ask for help. I’ll be the first one to admit that.

There are times where I take on too much and then I remind myself that in order for everyone to be successful, including myself, we do need to ask for help.

We do need to have that confidence and that awareness of ourselves in what we can handle to be able to persevere and make sure things are taken care of.

So, as we’re talking about perseverance, we want to continue to see the positive benefits to setting our goals, to making them smart, to giving them space, to sharing in moments with other people, especially as next month is the new year and the new year usually means new goals for people or a revisit of old goals. Do we like them? Do we want to keep them? Do we want to keep moving forward with them?

Conclusion

So as we look ahead, what do we want to persevere through? What have we already persevered through and accomplished when the work got tough?

I’m sure there’s been a lot of it. And I’m sure if you took a moment to examine it, you would see the benefits that it gave you.

So remember, when the work gets tough, we don’t give up and I’ll see you guys on the mat!

True Balance Karate was founded in 2012 by Master Sue and Paul Helsdon.

We offer kids karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up. These lessons are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need — specialized for their age group — for school excellence and later success in life.

Our adult martial arts training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay) in shape, or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 630-663-2000. You can also contact us here.