Happy Tyr’s Day

Discussion:

“Perseverance is the ability to stand up and return from defeat and failure”

Principle: Keep getting up after every defeat or failure.

It seems simple enough, doesn’t it?  Keep getting up no matter how hard life knocks you down, you put your feet back under you and stand up.  I can tell you from long experience, this is more a matter of will than anything.  The world can be a hostile and difficult place to try to achieve something.  If you fail to get up, you will join the long list of people who did not do so and now dwell in mediocrity and obscurity.

Of all the virtues, I find this one the most natural to myself.  Not to say that it isn’t tested on a regular basis, but I faced my first real test of perseverance in high school on the football field.  But four years of hard grinding practices designed to make you quit, then break you down and then build you back up.  Never missing one practice just for the chance to play a game.  For my chance at Friday Night Lights and the glory therein.  I never got much playing time, but the lessons of getting back up and to keep working never left me.

Website: Ravenbok – The particular page is: The Values of Asatru

To the Wolves and Ravens:

“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”

Needs (Geri):

The failure to persevere means one thing.  You are done.  To not be done you have to get up and try again.   If I can’t get you to understand this basic concept perseverance teaches, then nothing else is possible. Never quit is the start fo all success.

Wants (Freki):

It is the success that leads us to why we want perseverance.  If we don’t quit, if we keep getting back up, then success will happen eventually. Maybe not in the way we want or to the degree we want, but no opportunity for success involves laying on the ground and waiting for it to come to you. If you want something you have to go get it and if you get blocked, inhibited or nocked down, you have to keep trying. To get what you want is going to involve getting back up.

Reason (Huginn):

In my studies, I have never noted a person who didn’t fail from time to time.  Most of the successful people I know failed sometimes many times.  Reason suggests that failure is not the enemy of success but the builder of the virtue of Perseverance if you embrace it.

Wisdom (Muninn):

If experience teaches wisdom, then perseverance seems to be its main avenue.  It is the primary experience of getting up after every failure that leads to the most wisdom and success.

Conclusion:

I have little problems with perseverance.  I think this last year would stand as exhibit A from my life for that.  My strength has come from never giving up no matter how dark Life or The Grey gets. I keep walking and getting up and walking.

Still Walking,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!