Taking Perseverance to a Whole New Level by Lara Schiffbauer

Welcome to another Life List Club Friday. Today we have the lovely Lara Schiffbauer with us. Take it away Lara…

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First, I’d like to thank Sonia for giving me the opportunity say hello to all of you! She is guest posting over at Gary Gauthier’s blog, Literary Snippets today, so please stroll on over there and tell her “hello,” too.

Taking Perseverance to a Whole New Level

If you have ever listened to motivational speakers, therapists, or life coaches (among others) talk about goal achievement, the chances are great that they used the word “persevere” at least once. I have used that word, frequently, myself.

Perseverance is the ability to see a goal through to the end. It’s not giving up or quitting, even if the way becomes tough to navigate. It’s a very important quality to have to achieve goals and dreams. Just recently, though, I began to wonder if perseverance is enough.

For the most part, I’ve had the mindset that, if I persevere long enough, I will become a successful writer. I tell myself it’s just a matter of time before others recognize my brilliance. (Come on, fess up! Don’t you talk to yourself that way? It’s okay if we do. I promise.)

But one day, several weeks ago, I had a gut-wrenching, hand-trembling moment of fear.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. What I did have was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach at the possibility that “it,” meaning success, wouldn’t happen.

My nemesis, What If, showed up, prancing around and whispering doubt directly into my heart. What if… you don’t do it right? What if… you’re just wasting your time? What if… you suck?

I wish I could say that experience has taught me not to listen, but I would be lying. Of course I listened, or else I wouldn’t have had the totally emotional response of wanting to curl up into a little ball.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. I did become disoriented, though. I wasn’t sure how to respond to the loss of optimism.

This didn’t seem like a moment that called for perseverance. I didn’t need to slog through the doubt until I came out the other side. I needed something more. I needed…. wait for it…

Tenacity.

Tenacity comes from the 17^th century Latin term “tenac”, which means “holding fast.” The Encarta World English Dictionary (Microsoft 2009) defines tenacity as “tending to stick firmly to any decision, plan or opinion without changing or doubting it.”

What was that you said? Without doubting the decision? Ah-ha!

Doubt is the fear of failure. We experience doubt when we start wondering if we are capable of achieving our goals. Can we do it? Am I good enough? Is it worth it?

Fear is an emotion.

Tenacity takes the emotion out of the equation.

We hold fast to the plan-not the outcome of the plan-without changing or doubting it. We do not lose sight of our goals, because it doesn’t matter how we feel. We follow the plan, because that is what we said we would do.

For me, in my moment of weakened optimism, it didn’t matter how I felt. I had decided a year(ish) ago that I was going to write a novel. And now, all I had to do was to do just that – one chapter, one sentence, or even one word at a time.

I’ll worry about the outcome later.

What do you do when you have “one if those moments”? What helps you make it through?

Lara Schiffbauer writes contemporary fantasy and general fiction, and has been lucky enough to see some of her short stories published.  By day she works as a school social worker in an elementary school and at night juggles writing, playing with her two adorable little boys, and doing everything else that has to get done in a day. You can find her on Twitter at @LASbauer or blogging at Motivation for Creation.