This is What Perseverance Looks Like

I was waiting for a bus the other day and I couldn’t stop looking at this rock wall at the bus stop. Then I started to notice the moss that grows everywhere here. And that all got me thinking about how committed you have to be sometimes, just to feel like you’re surviving.

As people, of course we aren’t challenged by nature like this, but our psyches are awfully impressionable. A few rejections or failures and it’s easy to lose sight of all the successes we’ve had. I saw a Ted Talk recently about how susceptible our brains are to the negative, refusing to let negatives go, yet easily forgetting important successes. And we’ve all had both. You have to work to strike a balance with your perspective with everything. We all do.

And just look at how beautiful this insistent moss is. It can never really cover this wall, (well, I have learned you can never say never) but it seriously never gives up. It nearly crawls it’s way out through every crack it can find in this wall, it roots itself to rocks, and it does the very best it can with very little to work with. Not only does it work hard, it shines when the sun does come out, showing off its simple accomplishment of surviving.

Too many of us throw in the towel when confronted with a no. We cower at the idea of changing plans. We are quick to log another failure, and acknowledging an accomplishment comes hard for some of us. (Which I have turned around for myself, with this little sign in a nearby coffee shop)

And it really is this simple. Cling to your plans, your dreams and your commitments like moss does to the rocks and shine as brightly as you can with whatever you’ve got. But be ready for a lot of plot twists. This long and winding road through life, has more than you can imagine to throw at you. But think how great you’ll feel when you navigate past them to get where you’re going.