A particular event is not shaping itself the way it can, what should one do? A particular incidence is not evolving the way it can, what should one do? A particular episode is embroiling uncertainty and rage time and again, what should one do? Should one give up or compromise or be in denial? NO, one should rigorously and thoroughly only persevere? Now, this brings us to the imminent question; what is perseverance?
It is the very action of showcasing persistence despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. It showcases the tenacity and the vigour to attain success. The continuous effort and determination to accomplish a target come what may is what accounts for a limitless exposure towards perseverance. This very precedence is what makes one look at perseverance as a spectacle in order to acquire greatness and thereafter, maintain it.
This particular skill, habit or quality once instilled in a person cannot be replaced by any other skill, quality or habit. It can compliment any other great skill beautifully though. It becomes an epitome of standardised benefit which leads one towards eternal greatness. It is this standard occurrence which finds its way through irrespective of the adversities. All levels of existence; be it good, bad or ugly come along. Such levels of existence are no longer housed in the periphery of compliance.
They have moved into the realm of creating, nurturing and quantifying; a good quality way of life. In this sense, the thought evokes which factors are adding value to your way of life. Are they making you happy or not? If not, then which key element can one imbibe and illustrate to enhance the very quality of life. The key quote shouts back PERSEVERANCE.
This particular virtue or more so life skill is to make one belief so much that nothing else matters. Belief becomes the key to achieving everything one can set an eye on but perseverance is the factor which lets the person go on and on even if the road seems inundated with distractions, intrusions and interferences. This is when the focus bound phenomenon perseverance should be in rhythm with one’s very life.
Perseverance makes one attain razor sharp focus just like how Arjun in ‘The Mahabharata’ focussed on the eye of the golden fish when he had to hit the same with a bow and an arrow. The crucial point here is that the goal was crystal clear to hit the eye of the fish and win! To get to that level of finesse one requires the perseverance factor locked in so well that nothing makes a difference post that. The perseverance which takes form of practice, vigour, courage, deep involvement, resilience and defeats pain come what may. This must become the core essence in order to achieve the goal which was surmounted by massive distractions. As the sole focus needs to be on one target which is the eye of the golden fish that can signify as the very symbol of success
in this case!
Perseverance surfacing and projecting itself as a tool does not make the road to succeed and excel any easier. What it does is provide the undying will and life force to make the very road absolutely conquerable even if the levels of discrepancy keep increasing from one stop to the next. The inconsistency of the road collides with the pillar of commonality
embodying perseverance. This very pillar of commonality is what makes one excel irrespective of the standalone hindrances.
The answer for every barrier is to push oneself a little further. Not away from the spot and not to remain at the same spot either, always a step further. Even if you fall it has to be a step further; so you fall forward. How is that even possible? It is possible as one does not have to see the barrier; the temporary standpoint as a permanent stand whole. This very factor of the whole rhythm is what makes one device the inconvertible pattern of working which gets so deeply ingrained in one’s very ethical system. This entrenched pattern is what makes one device a flow which is concrete, consolidated and consoled at the same time. Once such an element is laid out the fortitude to move towards a goal/ a target/ a path is not something which one can be let go off completely ever. The road itself becomes the propelled push!
This path is what makes one determine the attributes of ongoing success which is an essential factor to lead a good quality life! Most of the time you are certain that you need to persevere further in order to lead a good quality life. However, sometimes you land up not doing so as your attention is disturbed, the focus is estranged and your consciousness is marred. The way to make oneself shine is to draw focus to the inner core and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you cannot reach that level of endurance, faith and love leading to surmount focus and streamlining itself by perseverance.
This was the situation that even Trishna found herself in for a long time. Trishna knew the key was to not let go of the very crux of the matter and become one negative self with it but to walk past it bravely and emerge positively victorious! However, she was tired, unmotivated and worn out to the hilt! Trishna was fathomed wary to the core. She couldn't take it anymore. This was around the same time when she happened to be pursuing her graduation course. It was around this time when the will to excel, imply, apply and even to just suffice had reached a standstill. It finally reached the very core of sufferance and it was ensuring steadily that Trishna possibly cannot take it anymore or move further.
Around this time of dreaded mental fiasco, Trishna encountered, witnessed and engaged with a person who perched into becoming her best friend, guide and philosopher for life! In fact at that point of disintegration this person landed up being the hardcore gamut of hope for Trishna. The same hope which had to reignite the belief! She told Trishna that life has to go on. So one has to propel and prod along!
One cannot stop just because one is comprehended towards stopping the mind via giving up as an excuse. The point is that the goal is forward and the end point is success. That is obvious! However, the vigour, the struggle, the drive to reach that endpoint with utmost precision is what makes all the difference. So the choice is never ever to give up but to only move forward!
Her friend explained to Trishna that life is not a bed of roses. It will never blossom into being a bed of roses on its own either. That should not matter as one gets an opportunity to create their own bed with their version of roses.
This is an excellent thing as that is what derives one towards spellbound greatness. You get to choose, converge, communicate, commune and create your own path that can be greater than that! You churn out your own destiny and then measure the vigour of the lapse of faith in you. Which then moves into the direction of never dying conquest as bigger the dream, the bigger the challenge, the bigger the path blocks and the bigger the difficulties, the bigger the conflicts. However, the magical part of the outcome is that the bigger the triumph!
The arduous difficulties have to be nullified by perseverance. This is the lesson that Trishna learnt from the lowest low that you have to showcase, instill and imbibe perseverance in order to excel! This was not to be kept theoretical anymore in fact it had to become completely experiential forever. Her friend belonged to a very humble background with super humble beginnings and still wanted to make it really big! That is because of the undying fortitude bicycled with perseverance to do very well in life.
The never ending plan of action to do well was by way of moving past all the worries and frets in life. Trishna’s friend previewed life schemes that were scarred, charred and marred by a very bad family life. Exquisitely similar to the one Trishna harboured in her spectrum of existence except that it was not an identical twin. It was during this stream of forbearing thoughts that her friend advised Trishna that forget about all that has happened and concentrate on what you want should actually happen. This is essential in order to make one grow! This very growth will be measured by the depths of perseverance.
This very depth is what makes one click with the inner self, the inundated self loses sight and the pure core inner self is consummated with prayer. The prayers, invocation and devotion are the very beliefs that integrate and solidify one’s life. The very pleasure is what makes one drive towards achieving the long lost goal which has accumulated the dust of lost hope topped with chaos, distrust, deception, envy, and lies. These very catastrophic qualities have emerged out of the external background and have severely attempted to corrupt and tarnish the existence of the soul.
Her friend told Trishna to get rid of the carcasses of the past and focus on the shortcomings of the future by adding tremendous strength, character and value to the present. This was to be achieved by exceedingly working towards one primary factor which was devotion towards God. The most important thing is to pray in order to ride the vehicle of life like an empress through the wheels of perseverance. Her friend was not one to just preach and not practice; she believed in and instilled the power of prayer in every situation of her own life.
Trishna knew the noise of prayer, the mantras, the scriptures and the chants and grasped those really well. However, she never ever submerged herself into it and hence, never emerged out of it either. This is because the pathway to prayer had been brought down to her doorstep of life by way of fear. She would pray to ward off any form of fear. Be it physical, mental, emotional or psychological. She would pray to ward off that form of fear. So it became a ritual soon. Now that is not an entirely incorrect reason to pray but it is not a holistic, interconnected and explicable reason to pray either.
The never ending road to conquer fear merged into the other common reason to pray which is to fulfil expectations! The conditioned programming was to pray in order to attain something full -fledged because one deserves it or desires it.
Her friend recommended Trishna to let go of such pre-conditioned thoughts, patterns, plot points and pray for peace, belief, hope, faith and strength. She pursued her not to pray for demolishing her fears or for even forfeiting her expectations. As when one would acquire a tremendous backing of strength, robustness and power one would anyway not be fearful any longer and would have addressed the root cause of worry giving rise to fear in turn emerging victorious.
Also when one would be in tune to the core inner self, the expectations would die a natural death as they would have taken shape of the very same peace, belief, hope, faith and strength through prayer which thrives one’s very own existence and comes to live with one’s own dogma intercepted with positivity.
This essence is what Trishna absorbed as a lesson in life, by way of being spiritual in her way of conducting herself. She did not care what others felt or thought or discussed about her, she had learnt to cut off the noise for good. Trishna was killing away all the negativity of pre-conditioned norms and external chaos by focussing on her holistic well being, as she kept guiding herself through the spiritual light, which did not bare resemblance to a religious foray anymore. Trishna instilled the spiritual way of life to be her original, honourable and honest way of life.
The draw was to gain enormous pleasure by way of undying strength through a pious medium of praying. This drove Trishna to complete her count of abstinence which brought about the best in her, showcasing perseverance in the highest form and order. Trishna became spiritual; she understood that all the parameters, boundaries and limitations of good as well as bad exist only inside you! If you cannot fight the bad inside you efficiently you cannot possibly win. So who is doing what on the outside does not matter to you as long as you make your inside invincible!
The courage, drive and vigour which come onto surface when one is ready to fight are enlightened by the path of prayer in the form of utmost devotion. This very form of prayer calls to the soul as a prototype of innate Justice.
Justice towards seeking what is wrong and what is right. If there is a right there should be the drive to excel which in turns calls to action the very purpose of life. If there is a mistake it is crossed out after experiencing its lessons instead of embroiling in it forever. The prayer becomes the pathway to torch the vigilance of perseverance. This vigilance is what consolidates the shortcomings and makes the desire to win so concentrated that there is no looking back from where one started off from hence crossing the wrongs and excelling in the right!
As the starting point is always the precursor to attain perseverance which everyone in a way does. The problem is losing out the drive when things do not go out as planned because of fear of losing again or then having an astounding amount of expectation towards external situations and then succumbing time and again. When the unified goal is solidified with prayer, there is no looking back at all! The person continues to only
move, torrent and cascade towards greatness effectively, categorically, and in a classified way.
Trishna's friend's take was that no pedestal in life is ever balanced without prayer. The involvement needs to be so thorough, so evolved and so precise that you pray to a power, a belief, a hope, a faith and not to a picture! The picture could be of any supreme personality of godhead, could be any form of occurrence, and could belong to any aforesaid religion. The belief to sustain the power and grow into the same power is important and salient. As that is what draws one into levelling all of the shortcomings and doing very well. Once you have corroborated all the shortcomings you make all your derivatives vigilant. This in turn makes you a draw checker and a draw catcher. This draw catching is what makes you go through all the pursuits of greatness tagged along with happiness at ease.
Trishna, guided by her friend during her trying times, never ever gave up her belief, shook off all the negativity and dirt of uncertainty; strengthened it with prayer and built it, grew on it plus nurtured it with perseverance. This ongoing cycle of faith lapsed with tremendous problems on and off, surfacing of worries and aforesaid challenges became a possibility of working things out by cutting off the cycle or deviating the cycle before it forged itself time and again by exercising perseverance.
Just like success, even perseverance is not a one time investment. It is a lifelong investment which is to be kept guarded, processed and practiced as often as possible. Trishna grew and emerged with every road block, with every single hassle, and with every mess as she converted it into an opportunity. Trishna became empathetic to her surroundings and in turn aware of her shortcomings. Once her weaknesses converted into strength; they churned out a pattern which was built up over a period time to draw out the best. Trishna drew towards becoming invincible. This predicament was fortuned by faith in herself in order to push herself ahead and way ahead come what may.
Trishna realised one vital thing: why should she push herself only when the situation becomes diehard? She started to push herself effectively, positively and categorically then the pull became concentrated on the win. The logic is when you concentrate on the good the good happens, when you concentrate on the bad the bad happens. The massive concentrated effort had found a way to concentrate on only the good. This gave rise to tremendous joy in her way of putting things in perspective. Once the perspective was set, the doing was determined by the way of life which makes one conquer the place of life all through which is to ride through all the adversities that may come.
This way of life was standalone towards all the joy of life which will never ever find an alternative way away for itself. As life, way of life, joy of life, uncertainties of life, pain in life and problems of life all come under one umbrella. It is up to us to see which area we are giving maximum importance to. This is the very spirit of life fostering its quest. Trishna made this spirit her vision and her very vision became her reality. This was due to a huge promise about a lifelong involvement with perseverance.
The involvement which Trishna had with the tool was not to redeem the future and fervour the present but to garner the spirit of life as a vision in every way possible. This vision was a precursor to all good things which emerged out of thin air just like miracles
do! The very miracles she always believed to have existed. Started to appear and flourish in her life by way of escalated emergence of events, episodes and occurrences with enormous bundles of perseverance showered in and solidified cum conjoined with earnest prayers. Never ending quest of strength always surfaces miracles with innocent prayer and vigilant perseverance.
Bio:
Trishna Patnaik, a BSc (in Life Sciences) and MBA (in Marketing) by qualification but an artist by choice. A self-taught artist based in Mumbai, Trishna has been practising art for over 14 years. After she had a professional stint in various reputed corporates, she realised that she wanted to do something more meaningful. She found her true calling in her passion that is painting. Trishna is now a full-time professional painter pursuing her passion to create and explore to the fullest. She says, "It’s a road less travelled but a journey that I look forward to everyday." Trishna also conducts painting workshops across Mumbai and other metropolitan cities of India.