Persistence

If at first you don't succeed....try....try....persistence.

"Just try your best, try everything you can, and don’t you worry what they tell themselves when you’re away". Jimmy Eat World

What is "persistence"?

Persistence is about being able to keep trying to reach your goals despite any obstacles along the way.

It’s about sticking at things through the good and bad times. Persistence is an ingredient that helps you get through all sorts of situations you can experience in life.

Persistence can help you get what you want or cope with things like finishing this year at school, finding a job, getting over a relationship break up, making new friends or getting a driver's licence.

When you make mistakes and fail at something, persisting and trying again can get you through setbacks.

Don’t quit yet

Mistakes and failures, no matter how small, can lead to feelings of anxiety, frustration, anger and sadness. These feelings are all quite normal but it is important that you don’t let them get out of hand.

You can use mistakes and feelings that you have when you fail to your advantage. First, you have to know that it is normal and okay to fail – nobody is perfect. How many times have you heard someone say that you can learn from your mistakes? It’s true. Being able to accept failure and using it to persist and eventually succeed can be hard, but it will pay off.

It can be hard to stick at things when you get bored, when it takes a long time, when you think you are going to fail, or you can't see that there is an end in sight.

You can feel overcome with feelings of helplessness when you are confronted with things you need to do. It might seem easier to quit! But lots of time it’s not the best thing to do, it’s not fun and you can regret quitting. This can all be negative for your mental health because you may start to believe you can’t achieve anything, that you don’t have any talents and skills or you’re not a good friend.

Persistence doesn’t have to be painful.

 If you are finding something hard to tackle you could try these ideas to help you push on:

• Think of the things that you need to do to help you succeed. It might be needing more time, more practice, coming up with smaller steps to reach your goals or talking to family and friends to gain encouragement.
• Consider all your options, try to work out the pros and cons to keep pushing on with your goals.
• Look after yourself physically by getting good sleep and food can help you recharge your batteries.
• If you think you're getting nowhere, look back at all the changes that have happened so far and all the good stuff you've done. Give yourself credit and let others give you credit too.
• Don't forget to reward yourself with positive thoughts and doing the things you enjoy.

Also it's important to realise that there are lots of times when it is a smarter move not to continue what you are doing and change direction, such as when something is bad for your mental health like being in a violent relationship.

Believe in yourself and don’t give up

Try some positive self -talk by saying to yourself that you can keep trying and can succeed. If you believe that you are going to fail then you quite likely will! If you have confidence in yourself and believe that you can succeed, then your persistence will eventually pay off and lessen the chance of things getting on top of you.

* If you want to know more about self-talk, check out "Self Talk…. You are what you think"

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