Leonard WoolseyLast week I read an article discussing the difference between endurance and persistence. The author pointed out, correctly, many people use them interchangeably.
Funny how sometimes we need a stranger to point out the obvious.
I’ll bet most of us make this mistake, even if only rationalizing to ourselves while in pain. Going through difficult times can be defined as enduring, but coming out on the other side is not necessarily persistence.
Endurance is a critical trait separating a good number of people in life. But, when things get tough, do you fold or hold on? Do you make yourself focus on other items to distract yourself from the challenge or pain in the present?
While endurance is a life skill, it is a passive action designed to run out the clock or your time in a current situation. Hence, to endure.
On the other hand, persistence is the constant awareness of circumstances, gathering information, processing, and making adjustments to reach a predetermined goal.
One can endure difficult times, but persistence is an intentional act of constantly moving forward.
Thomas Edison, the famed inventor of the electric lightbulb, bragged it took him more than 1,000 tries to get the bulb to work.
When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison said, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Did Edison passively endure or actively gather and process information towards a predetermined goal? Persistence is like the over-achieving cousin to endurance.
I spent the better part of my youth riding a skateboard.
On my way to becoming a competition skateboarder, I learned to become friends with persistence.
The first time I stepped on a skateboard, I fell flat on my back. Hard. My friends laughed. And my butt hurt as much as my fragile pre-teen ego.
For the better part of the next several years, my best friend and I spent entire days picking apart photos in magazines on how to perform tricks, riding up vertical walls, and walking off a nasty road rash when shooting a downhill did not end well.
We wore our scars and scrapes as badges of honor in our pursuit of getting to our goal – being good enough to compete in contests.
If you’ve ever visited a skatepark, you’ll notice there is a lot more crashing and falling than perfectly executed choreography. And everyone knows this – yet keeps going. Like Edison, a skater might persist for days attempting a particular move before finally pulling it off. And like in Edison’s lab, strangers applaud and offer high-fives.
Crashing and burning are just another clue to unlocking the puzzle.
Strangely, this – and probably a few too many falls without a helmet – may explain the engrained instinct always to find a way to an end. I know I’m not smarter than most people, but I did learn if I keep my eyes on the prize, picking up clues, I will successfully land that double-kick flip.
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Leonard Woolsey