Perseverance

The choice behind the ideal

Difficulty interrupts an effort that seemed straightforward. Perseverance gives the worthwhile purpose another considered attempt instead of requiring every attempt to be immediately satisfying. It can include returning after a pause, obtaining guidance or changing the method in light of what failed.

The old precept urged doing whatever it takes. That phrase hides the question of whether the purpose and costs remain defensible. Thoughtful continuation keeps that question alive. The time already spent can inform the next choice, but it cannot by itself make a failing or harmful plan worth more.

Perseverance can give a worthwhile purpose another considered opportunity.

Imagine a shared wooden puzzle at a community gathering. One piece has resisted several attempts. You compare its edges with the gap and turn it a quarter turn before trying again. For a moment your head tilts with it, as though both of you are looking for the same answer. The purpose continues through a changed approach.

Finding the balance

The purpose deserves attention; the failed method does not deserve automatic loyalty.

A damaged piece or unsuitable puzzle changes the choice. Repair, a different task or a deliberate stop may be wiser than continuing. The fitting response is not always the middle amount of effort.

What becomes possible

Frustration can become a stage of learning rather than a final verdict on the person attempting the work. A return gives new information somewhere to act. Perseverance supplies continuity while Truth notices the failure and Discipline makes room for another manageable session.

In ordinary life

Return to a skill

Practice one specific part that remains difficult, using feedback rather than merely extending the session.

Revise a draft

Revisit an ordinary project with one concrete question from the previous attempt.

Make an intentional pause

Set a sensible point for reconsidering the goal so stopping or returning can be a reasoned choice.

Nearby virtues

Discipline

Discipline gives effort a rhythm; Perseverance supplies continuity when that rhythm meets difficulty.

Courage

Courage addresses facing fear for a worthy purpose. Perseverance may concern frustration or slow progress even when fear is not central.

Truth

Truth gives an accurate account of what the attempt achieved. Perseverance needs that account to choose its next step.

What can resemble it

The loyal hammer

A counterfeit of Perseverance repeats the same failed action more forcefully to defend earlier effort.

Endurance as proof

A counterfeit of Perseverance treats suffering or refusing every exit as the measure of character. Genuine continuation weighs the purpose, information and costs.

Ways to cultivate it

• Keep a clear account of the worthwhile purpose.
• Let the previous attempt identify one question for the next.
• Choose a proportionate return, change of method or deliberate stopping point.

Try it today

Persistence is no instruction to endure abuse, ignore danger or sacrifice necessities to an unchanged goal. Practice with an ordinary, manageable activity; pause, revise or stop when the reasons change.

Questions for reflection

• What worthwhile purpose remains after the frustration?
• Which fact from the last attempt should change the next?
• When would a deliberate stop better honor the purpose?

The earlier virtue.net precept

To be willing to keep doing whatever it takes to complete what we set out to accomplish. Through imperfections, through frustrations, through failure, through it all.

Original wording from the preserved earlier site. The precept at the top of this page and the surrounding explanation are contemporary adaptations.

The wording and its history

The nine names and earlier-site precepts are preserved as a reference collection. The explanations, exercises, poems and illustrations on these pages are contemporary adaptations. Quotations keep their named literary source, English edition and speaker; they are perspectives to examine rather than commands to adopt.

The modern list, older literature and preserved wording

Quotations and perspectives

Seven readings, one for each day of the week. Their speakers sometimes argue for positions worth questioning.

1. Among Fitjung’s sons | saw I well-stocked folds,— Now bear they the beggar’s staff; Wealth is as swift | as a winking eye, Of friends the falsest it is.

   Anonymous · Hávamál (Hovamol), in The Poetic Edda · translated by Henry Adams Bellows (1923) · The poem’s speaking voice; attribution to the High One does not establish historical authorship
   Hovamol, stanza 76 (Bellows numbering)

   The well-stocked folds become poverty, and wealth is called an unreliable friend. Continuity of effort cannot guarantee prosperity; this counterpoint helps keep perseverance attached to a worthwhile purpose rather than an assured reward.

2. Grettir said he would take good heed to his counsels

   Anonymous (Grettis saga) · The Story of Grettir the Strong · translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris · Narrator
   CHAP. XLIX.; (zero-based)

   Advice changes the outlaw’s next request for shelter. Continuing a difficult life need not mean repeating an isolated approach; the saga’s circumstances remain particular, and the page asks only for a manageable revision of an ordinary task.

3. Grettir thanked him for his wholesome redes

   Anonymous (Grettis saga) · The Story of Grettir the Strong · translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris · Narrator
   CHAP. LIV.; (zero-based)

   Grettir receives counsel and then follows a different route suggested by a friend. His later solitude complicates the result, but changed method here carries an aim forward without claiming that advice guarantees a comfortable outcome.

4. a task to which he had pledged himself

   Anthony Trollope · The Warden · Narrator describing John Bold
   Antony Trollope · Chapter VII The Jupiter; (zero-based)

   Public commitment and engaged lawyers make a reform difficult to abandon. The narrator also exposes Bold’s personal conflict: earlier effort and a pledge are reasons to examine, rather than conclusive proof that continuing the same course is right.

5. he did not in the least doubt his resolution, but he greatly doubted his power of defending it against his son-in-law

   Anthony Trollope · The Warden · Narrator describing Mr Harding
   Antony Trollope · Chapter XVIII The Warden Is Very Obstinate; (zero-based)

   A settled decision persists alongside difficulty explaining it under family pressure. Continuity need not erase uncertainty about one’s voice; the choice follows conscientious deliberation, rather than perseverance in an aim simply because it is already announced.

6. the life of the sword departed, and dull and broken it lay

   William Morris · The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs · Narrator
   BOOK II. · REGIN. · Of the forging of the Sword that is called The Wrath of Sigurd.; (zero-based)

   A second failed blade makes identical effort insufficient. Sigurd subsequently seeks different material from his mother; this violent heroic plot offers a literary contrast about changed method, not a suggested weapon-making activity.

7. The loom was there, and the weaving, and the growing pattern in the cloth

   George Eliot · Silas Marner · Narrator describing Silas after the theft
   PART I. · CHAPTER X.; (zero-based)

   The work continues to exist while its old reward has disappeared. The surrounding desolation prevents a cheerful command to endure: perseverance needs meaning, support and proportion, and a person’s grief is not failure of character.

Read further

• Anonymous — Hávamál (Hovamol), in The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (1923), translator)
• Anonymous (Grettis saga) — The Story of Grettir the Strong (Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris, translator)
• Anthony Trollope — The Warden
• William Morris — The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs
• George Eliot — Silas Marner

Edition notes and the preserved precepts

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