11 point checklist: How much perseverance do you have?

By Gail Wagnild

Reading time:  2 minutes

Do you see yourself as a person with determination? I know it’s essential to resilience. There is no way I can achieve anything that’s important to me without putting one foot in front of the other and not stopping.  Albert Einstein said, “It’s not that I’m so smart; I just stay with problems longer.”  The key to resilience is to keep going.

So how much perseverance do you have?

Here is a brief checklist that will take you 1 minute to read through and help you assess your level of perseverance.  I’ve found that this checklist is also very insightful if I ask someone else who knows me or works with me to assess my perseverance from their perspective.

  1. If I don’t succeed right away, I usually say enough is enough and quit.
  2. Sometimes I just seem to run out of steam.
  3. I dig in my heels when I’m up against it.
  4. If I were to keep score, I tend to give up more often than I stick with it.
  5. When the pressure starts to build, I usually say, “This just isn’t worth it.”
  6. I’ve been told that I’m a real trouper and have true grit.
  7. Once I start something, I will not stop until it’s finished.
  8. Rejection is my undoing; it takes a long time to get back up.
  9. I am patient. No matter how long it’s going to take, I’m going to do it.
  10. I’ve noticed in my life that I tend to give up just short of succeeding.
  11. I am willing to go through a lot of pain to reach my goal. I know this for a fact.

Do you see a pattern in how you approach obstacles and goals in your life? Do you tend to work until you succeed or quit short of success?

Sometimes the right thing to do is to quit, even if you haven’t reached your goal. The key to perseverance is that you don’t give up on goals that are important to you. If your priorities change, then perseverance without purpose becomes pointless.