Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Consistency and Determination

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Consistency and Determination

It can be observed that there is no match between water and a stone as far as the rigidness and solidity is concerned. The stone is firm and not easily breakable while the water is liquid and flows softly. If a person has to break a stone with water, it seems unimaginable; however, it is also true that the water has the capacity to make a whole into a stone – that is a task that can be performed even by tiny drops of water. All the drops require is consistency and determination. Put a stone under a tap of water and let the drops of water fall on the stone. You may not be able to observe anything within a day, not even within weeks and months but if the drops keep on dropping for years the firmness of the water would definitely has to be defeated by the soft minute drops and a hole has to be made. 

The above example clearly indicates that the consistency, determination and iron will have the capacity to make great and sometimes impossible achievements. Though talent and aptitude have their own importance, they can never reach to the status of persistent efforts. Talented people can be tired of the situation, can lose hope and even be disheartened but not the ones who are persistent. They may fail at first and fall again after rising for the second time but they can never give up. Not giving up means there is always a hope and the doors to blessings are never closed.  As observed by Calvin Coolidge, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent”.

A determined person has to lose nothing. Even if he fails to achieve what he has set for, which seems very improbable, he loses nothing as throughout the process he has learned the invaluable gift of patience and perseverance. Moreover, such a person is never dispirited as he has had faith and hope alive within himself and he has acquired the quality of keeping his spirits high and his willpower undefeated. Vince Lombardi had once said, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand”.

You might have heard the story of a person who was digging somewhere in search of gold and after digging for some days and being only few inches away from a large chest of gold had given up. He had lost hope and therefore the opportunity and the reward. The reward is always for those who wait for it and for those who earn it. In fact, what he had lost was not the gold but the determination.

Unfortunately, today the new generation that is living in a fast moving technological world, does not have the stamina for persistence. They are always in search of shortcuts. They want to acquire all the success and wealth within no time. They don’t seem to have the temperament to earn their rewards through untiring efforts. That’s why we see them lost in their imaginations away from the real world and most of the time we find them involved in so many illegal and non-ethical activities to achieve what they desire in a short span of time.

In order to achieve their shortcut goals, they give birth to so many other social evils, which they do not seem to realize as they are intoxicated with the drug of their own personal benefits. Such an attitude has, in reality, loosened the social fabrics and the race for the achievements of personal goals has gained momentum but that has been done with the sacrifice of cooperative and normal social life.

They resemble the person who used to have a hen that laid a golden egg every day. But the person was not patient enough to wait and get one golden egg a day. Therefore, he decided that he would slaughter the hen and get all the golden eggs that were in the belly of the hen at a time. Unfortunately, when he slaughtered the hen and cut its belly he could not find even a single egg as egg would nourish each day.

Louis C.K. had beautifully quoted, “I've learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work”. However, it is also important that the consistent and persistent efforts must be guided towards the right direction. There must be preliminary understanding of what target to choose and what direction to follow. Blindly following a wrong path and pursuing a wrong target with persistence would only mean colliding ones head to a rock and keep on doing it.   

Provided that the target is suitable and the direction is properly chosen, there is no doubt in the fact that hard work and untiring endeavors would enable a person to achieve even the most difficult targets in the world, as was said by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, “Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will”.

Dilawar Sherzai is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at Outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

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