A central part of the Virtue Project is identifying virtues that are lacking and figuring out how to grow in those areas in a systematic and truly effective manner. Based on the VIA Character Strengths survey, Bravery, Perseverance, and Self-Regulation were three traits that I pinpointed as virtues I need to work hard at forming in my character (you can read all about my analysis of the survey results here).
The focus of this series will be how to learn perseverance. Part 1 will examine all the research I have found helpful on the topic, while part 2 will be about developing strategies to work systematically on becoming more virtuous in this area. Eventually, I will discuss my progress and hopefully include some feedback from you the reader on how your journey is going.
“I persist toward my goals despite obstacles, discouragement, or disappointments.”
What is Perseverance?
When I think of perseverance I picture one of those mules who spends his whole life trudging around in a circle attached to a harness. I think they are typically pulling water out of a well or something. I’ve only seen them in movies. Or maybe that Sisyphus guy who kept rolling a stone up a mountain for eternity. Either way, it’s not a very attractive picture.
No wonder perseverance is one of my lowest character strengths. Thankfully, the first step in gaining virtue is attaining true understanding of what it is.
Perseverance Through the Ages
Perseverance is a complex character strength which is therefore difficult to trace cleanly through the historical conceptions of virtue. If we want to know how to learn perseverance, we need to understand what perseverance actually is. I’ll summarize what I find to be closely related concepts, but check out the full archive to do some digging for yourself.
The Romans highly valued the combination of “firmitas” and “constantia,” or, tenacity and perseverance. Together, these virtues should manifest as the strength of character to maintain your convictions and course of action in the face of strong opposition and personal danger.
The Romans were probably on to something, as even today psychologists classify Perseverance within the umbrella virtue of Courage.
Courage is clearly one of the core virtues recognized throughout history by Plato, Aristotle, of course the Romans, the Catholic Church, William J. Bennet, and the positive psychology movement led by Martin Seligman.
Benjamin Franklin deserves a nod here for including something like Perseverance in his list of virtues. “Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.” Franklin’s idea of resolution contains the core of following through no matter the obstacle.
Perseverance as Courage, not just Self-Control
The connection between courage and perseverance is definitely worth exploring. You can really break down courage into several categories, including bravery, zeal or conviction, and something like self-sacrifice. Perseverance is akin to sustained courage, the ability to keep being brave, zealous, and selfless when the adrenaline has dissipated and the obstacles aren’t going away.
The VIA Character Institute defines Perseverance as persistence, industry, and finishing what one starts, specifically in view of obstacles and resistance. This definition helps us take the concept off the battlefield and situation it more closely to everyday life. It truly does take courage to live a good life, whether you are a Marine or an accountant.
In contrast, perseverance is not as synonymous with discipline, self-control, and willpower. The Cardinal Virtues list Temperance and Courage separately. The Romans prized discipline and self-control, but grouped perseverance with tenacity instead. The Book of Virtues examines self-discipline and courage as distinct virtues. Martin Seligman grouped perseverance with Courage while putting self-control under Temperance.
Obviously, one of the foundations of virtue formation is that all of the virtues relate, or are concatenated, with one another, meaning that they grow together and work together. You cannot be a deeply persevering person unless you are also courageous and self-controlled. However, it was really transformative for me to think of perseverance as having more to do with courage than repetitive willpower.
How Does Perseverance Work?
Modern scientific research into the mechanism for perseverance seems to support the connection to courage. Perseverance is driven by the neurochemical called dopamine. We think of dopamine as the pleasure molecule, but really it might be more accurate to think of it as a way of affirming a beneficial behavior. It’s like a big thumbs up from your brain.
Dopamine is released when we achieve a goal or complete a difficult task, and usually the more difficult the task or greater the goal, the more significant the dopamine response. Ok, so how does that result in perseverance? Well, the key is that you actually have a huge say in training your brain concerning which behaviors to reward.
Exercise is the easy example everyone goes to. When you go running for the first time it is honestly horrible. Lots of suffering. But if you decide it is a goal worth attaining and push through the initial inertia, eventually you will start to love running and feel great once you finish a run. Many runners actually report feeling unpleasant when they don’t get to run. What happened? They trained their brain to release dopamine when the daily run was completed.
There a some key takeaways from this understanding of perseverance…
- You can train yourself to want to persevere through a given task
- There is a high startup cost in that training process that will be unpleasant at first
- Perseverance doesn’t feel like drudgery in the long-run; it’s actually pleasurable
Perseverance Requires…Hope?
One additional insight from the research on perseverance is that hope and optimism is necessary for building the dopamine feedback loop effectively. As a world-class pessimist, this is bad news for me (there I go again). While I despise the baseless, self-help version of positive thinking and patting yourself on the back, there is a definite difference between hopefulness and a mere sunny disposition. Hope in the context of reaching your goals and building perseverance is a belief and trust in the basic relationship in the world between virtuous action and success.
Obviously, we can all point to examples of someone acting virtuously, working hard, or being honest, and it not “paying off” for them. Conversely, there have been crooks, cowards, and sloths who have had a great deal of success in one area or another. But despite all that, the basic principle still holds true.
If you act virtuously in every area, it will result in a happier and more successful life. The world, and your own soul, is designed in such a way that everyone benefits from a virtuous life, and that brings joy all the way around. Also, while un-virtuous men and women can have great success in one area or another, it is often momentary and limited in focus. Someone who totally lacks honesty may succeed financially for a time doing shady business deals, but eventually he will end up in prison for his crimes, or his relationships will fall apart due to his untrustworthiness.
On an even more basic level, hope is the belief that cooking eggs and bacon generally leads to sitting down to a pleasant breakfast. Going to work each day and doing your job well generally results in receiving monetary compensation of some kind. Treating someone well generally results in having a good relationship with that person. There are exceptions of course. Sometimes the bacon will burn, the business will go bankrupt, or you’ll be treated unfairly by a friend or family member. But hope is the realization that there is life after disaster, that one failure does not necessitate another, nor do one hundred failures.
Because of this mindset, perseverance makes you anti-fragile. It makes you into someone who is not vulnerable to every minor setback, obstacle, and disappointment. Perseverance can make you a person who understands what is worthwhile and refuses to turn back in your pursuit of it despite every difficulty.
Now What?
Sounds great, doesn’t it? I know it does to me. I want to be a person who perseveres in my pursuit of everything that is important to me. But perseverance, like all things worth having, is not easy to attain. The key realization that I’ve had is that it takes perseverance to build perseverance, making it a unique challenge, but also a unique opportunity.
Part 2 will get into the nitty gritty details of developing a plan and strategy for forming the virtue of perseverance.
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