Perseverance

When you encounter something you find difficult or annoying, you end up at an intersection: give up or persevere? If you persevere and show willpower despite the setbacks, you will often be rewarded with a satisfied feeling. Willpower requires focus on your own goals, the ability not to be distracted and to experience tackling the situation as a challenge.

Perseverance can be trained in the following ways:

Know what you want and set goals

In order to have the ability to persevere, it is important that you have your goal well in mind. That way you know where your priorities lie. Imagine the following choices: Do I take the car or the bike today? Am I going to work out for an evening or do I go to the gym? A bar of chocolate or a piece of cucumber? At first glance these may not seem like big decisions, but they are actually very important. You want to pay attention to your lifestyle! So when making these choices and decisions, always keep in mind that your priority is your health. So make decisions that fit in with that.

Learn from setbacks or difficult moments

Learn your lesson; look back at an unpleasant situation and consider what you could learn from it. Make a plan on how to handle it better next time. Decide what you need to achieve your goals, whether there are things you need to learn or do differently. Maybe someone can help you? Consider what steps can bring you closer to your success. You can even train it: start with something you know you can accomplish and make it a little more difficult for yourself. Look for situations that you would rather avoid, because you find them boring, awkward or not very challenging. Formulate in advance what you want to achieve and force yourself to keep this goal in mind and continue. 

Keep a positive diary

It can be beneficial to keep a diary. For example, name three things every day that you are thankful for or happy with. In any case, this will give you a moment every day when you have a positive feeling. In a diary you can ventilate your emotions, shape your ideas, develop projects, weigh up choices, clarify your mind, reflect and thus build a more intimate bond with yourself. If you notice

that your diary makes you focus more on negative things, stop it and start a small notebook for positive moments and gratitude.

Determine for yourself what works. Don't let it knock you out of the field and make sure you have the right mindset.