Persistence - One More Stone!

Life has been beautiful so far!

Life is always hard, why not play it harder and enjoy the sweet outcome of persistence?

The 21st century is tough. We have been going through an era of fierce competition everywhere. Especially for a 90s kid like me, 2020-2030 will be the decisive factor of my career.

Everywhere I compete, I must ensure my best to give in. In the job market, in my family, in my love life – there is no way back from giving my 100%.

But I always feel, I have been competing in the wrong group for the last 27 years of my life.

Endurance is a habit, which has to be grown with successive persistence

I have been competing in academia, where smarter students are always there to outperform me. And even if I go at par, the reward doesn’t entice me at all.

So why did I decided to pursue my career in academia?

Because I was afraid of being missed out! I couldn’t stand all my friends who are going abroad, pursuing higher education, and I am doing a 9-5 job.

It took me 27 years to understand that I was never meant to compete and compare with others for my wellbeing. My measurement of inner success is completely something else. And the competition solely goes with me.

And the competition is persistence!

The things that I want to achieve, the good life, good family, financial flexibility, everything requires a different level of persistence.

Never give up!

So far, I have been a persistent student. Whenever a major setback looked like a predicament in my academic life, I somehow managed to overcome it.

But the truth is, I was never faced with any real predicament yet!

I have never seen any life-threatening issues yet!

It’s relatively easy to cling to things that are going well and we can measure the progress. For example, whenever I was disheartened by my academic result, I just pushed myself a little bit harder to cross the threshold.

Since the threshold was visible and always seemed achievable to me.

I won’t call that persistence!

Rather I never got the opportunity to challenge myself with a real life-threatening situation.

As a child, I tried to cross the threshold for good results…

Never had I ever cooked my food, had no accommodation issue, never had I ever faced any financial situation where I had to earn money for my survival.

I have been lucky and privileged, consequently stubborn and entitled.

Ridiculously, I have been dreaming my whole life to be someone like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, without preparing myself to grab the opportunity when it arrives.

In his famous book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has eloquently argued that the story of success is rather the story of thousands of external factors, where the successful people were privileged enough to grab the opportunity when it arrived.

But most importantly, the person himself was persistent enough to continuously do a single job for more than 10,000 hours. So whenever the moment came, he was ready to seize it!

10,000 hours is the magic number here!

And the number symbolizes persistence, sweat, and the stories of never giving up.

Success is not a one-man show

Persistent people have always a higher purpose in their lives which further drives them to achieve something bigger. Their visions don’t get confined to achieving a particular goal.

Nobody is ever remembered for aiming for a specific goal. Getting into Harvard can never be someone’s ultimate target. To be a prominent scientist, she has to push herself further with unimaginable persistence.

Persistence has no endpoint. It is always evolving towards the best, and the best, by definition, never settle.

''If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.''

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos has so far no profit in his income statement, as he has always been reinvesting into the business. For people like him, the sky is the limit, and they are ready to touch the sky beyond mundane imaginations.

The online commerce cult has been sheer persistence of some outliers

Today is a special day for me, it has been exactly 27 years since I was born.

Numerically, It has been 9862 days with 7 leap years), or 236,688 hours, or 14,201,280 minutes that I have breathed the air. I have seen the boundless beauties of the planet, and most importantly I lived.

But I haven’t achieved my 10,000 hours yet!

However, I am hopeful to be happily persistent. For the moment, I want a real purpose in my life to have my meaningful 10,000 hours. If I live for another 27 years, I want to live a life where I shall rejoice every single moment – that I was alive!

Today is my birthday!

For my 27th birthday wish, dear God, bless me to endure one more stone, please!

By the way, I got this email from my past self today! Really enjoyed every single word:

Dear FutureMe,

This is 22 July 2020.

And you are still struggling!

Well, I guess the age is so, so is our society. So is the time, and you are not alone.

Have faith in yourself, you are meant to do something unique, have that faith, always!

This time, no pressure from myself. I know, you will try your best to chase your dream. Just remember, life is a journey. Just make this journey beautiful. Whether you become a successful businessman or die as a happy farmer, doesn’t mean anything to the universe. You are responsible for your decisions, those decisions will shape your future, but trust me, your future means nothing if you forget to enjoy your presence in the pursuit of happiness.

Sit back, relax. You are blessed with the best gift of nature – that is your life itself! Nothing means anything if you torture yourself with the so-called sense of future happiness.

I trust you mate!

Best wishes from past you!