#lostmymindmgmt

It is incredibly inspiring to see how my friend, Chris Williams, was able to finish third in the District 1Toastmasters humorous speech competition. Chris has been a Toastmaster for roughly six months and he is already bringing home trophies.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence, talent will not; these words by Calvin Coolidge ring through my ears every day as I finish my morning meditation. A piece of a quote taken from our 30th president, it was engrained into my mind as a college boy while pledging my fraternity Phi Gamma Delta. FIJI, as it is colloquially known, held this quote high amongst the education we were taught throughout our pledge semester; through every test we had we were expected to know this first and foremost. While I once believed that my time pledging had taught me the full extent of this lesson, I have recently found its impact to be ever more present in my life.

Indubitably, working with my partner on this business has been a true challenge of willpower and grit; it is not easy to take an idea from a dream you once thought unattainable and bring it into fruition. The challenge is knowing that you have an uphill battle that only gets steeper as you approach the summit, and humbly accepting that you may not have all the tools at your disposal to get there without falling a couple times. Unfortunately, the the misguided mantra of many of our brothers and sisters is if you fail once, you have failed for good.

This is where part one of Calvin’s iteration comes to realization; in knowing that talent is not a substitute for hard work, or as we have now come to know it, persistence, we can approach our challenges with more self-confidence. What may have once seemed like an insurmountable odd now crumbles beneath your courage and you are able to attack what you truly desire at its core, its heart. Furthermore, accepting that we may not have all the talent that we need pushes us to seek out people who do have those missing talents, learn from their methods and mistakes, and finally, apply a well sound plan to our own lives. Through this pattern of opening our minds and rationally processing the actions of those who have experienced more than us, we can effectively save ourselves from wasted time, energy, and emotional effort; we were born to learn from history. 

Ultimately, the question of persistence in our daily lives is one necessary to our thriving as human beings. While we must always work hard and engage the challenges that life gives us head-on, we also have to persevere through our own personal barriers inside and the ego that tells us not to listen to others. Being humble and knowing when to watch and learn is as much a part of persistence as using our raw talents, and as meditation and time have taught me, life is all about balance.