Persistence

by Teresa Trojanowski

There were times when I would ask my 6th graders, "Are you proud of yourself for brushing your teeth this morning?"

Kids often came to my math class hating math, believing that it was "too hard" or that they "just don't get math." After the standard teacher questions ("What have you already tried?", "Where do you think we should start?", etc.), I'd sometimes respond with the teeth brushing question, to which the answer was, of course, "No." Cue my reply: "Exactly. Because we're not proud of ourselves for doing the things that are easy. We're proud of ourselves for doing the things that require hard work and discipline." 

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us lose our persistence, expecting things to come "easy" or being unwilling to invest. We practice pull-ups for 10 minutes without seeing any significant progress and declare that we're just never going to get it. Or tell ourselves, "I have bad shoulder mobility. That's just how it is, " to escape the potentially weeks/months/years required to improve it. In contrast, how proud were you upon earning your degree? Or finishing a long project at work? Watching your children grow up? Whether it's pride, ego, laziness, or something else that prevents us from being persistent at times, remember that things that don't come easy are often the most significant things - the ones that we are most proud of!