Why is tenacity such a valuable quality?

Dear friend,

There are many qualities that are nice to have:

good looks, talent, sense of humor…

If we have them

it certainly makes life more pleasant

and our path forward easier.

But as far as achieving success

in reaching our goals

there is one quality that tops them all:

tenacity.

The tenacious individual

will overcome all obstacles in their way.

Revive and rebound

each time they bite the dust.

Continue moving ahead

even when others give up on them.

Survive, outlast, and prevail

through all battles and all setbacks.

Our role models

We read stories about people

whose tenacity inspires us:

soldiers, athletes, artists, leaders.

The beautiful singer Nightbirde

who won the golden buzzer

on America’s Got Talent

said that during her prior cancer treatment

she kept repeating to herself:

“Don’t you want to see what happens if you don’t give up?”

Who knows what will happen in YOUR life –

if YOU don’t give up!

In the trenches

When I was in graduate school

those of us who were “sojourning in the desert”

(as we called working on our PhD thesis,

also known as the dissertation)

would solemnly declare to each other:

“As long as you don’t quit, you’ll finish.”

Frankly, we felt like zombies.

”Ghosts and empties”

as Paul Simon calls all of us

who are “going to Graceland.”

But none of us grad students

wanted to wear on our foreheads

the dread initials ABD.

All But Dissertation.

We all knew a few lifelong ABD’s

and we viewed that identity

as a sentence worse than death.

Well, it took many long years

for me to complete my dissertation

in which I advanced my original theory

on the nature of malignancy —

but I finished.

In the midst of those years

I remember one of my fellow sojourners

saying to me:

“Deborah, you have the tenacity of a Louisiana snapping turtle.”

What is tenacity?

Tenacity is steel in the mind.

Unbendable ego strength.

The tenacious individual

does not allow themselves to quit.

There is a certain look

in their eyes that says:

“Don’t bother betting against me.”

The look is a mixture

of confidence and bravado

but is based in accurate self knowledge.

We get that knowledge

by proving to ourselves

time and time again

that we will make it

through anything and everything

and ultimately achieve

our goal, our dream, our mission.

We prove to ourselves

that whatever we DECIDE to do

we will do.

The decision is the crucial step

We may have been told

that the follow through

is the most important thing

in achieving a goal.

Nope.

It’s the decision.

Without an ironclad decision

— at the very outset —

that we will achieve our goal,

there will BE no follow through.

Everything depends on

the strength of our decision.

The decision must be a wise one

aimed at achieving a worthy and honorable goal.

One that is — at least to some degree — attainable.

We must take great care in choosing our goal.

But once we have made our decision to achieve it

it’s a done deal.

A story

I decided in April 2021

that I was going to race a triathlon

that September.

In a triathlon

you swim, then bike, then run.

I could bike and run

but I hated to swim.

Could barely stand

to put my face in the water.

So, I found a great teacher

and took swimming lessons.

I salted the pool with my tears

but I learned.

Over the months

I gradually became capable

of swimming the distance required.

I trained hard six days a week

swimming, biking and running

and on September 1st

I successfully raced a triathlon.

Yes, you could say

that September 1st

was when I achieved my goal.

But that isn’t actually how it worked.

It happened when I decided.

Everything since that moment

flowed forward like a strong wave

headed straight to my destination.

There was to me

no other conceivable outcome

but getting to that destination.

As Margaret Thatcher put it:

“Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word.”

As a tenacious person

once we make our decision

we harbor no pessimism.

We never play victim.

We never ever bet against ourselves.

The value of tenacity

The value of tenacity is

it makes us unstoppable.

We live each day

in the security of knowing

that even when major blows hit us

we will just spit out the blood

and keep going.

Let others make fools of themselves

by betting against us!

We who build unstoppable lives

just laugh

because we know better.

We tenacious builders

not only expect our lives to go well

we apply unstoppable strength

to make sure they do.

Blessings,

Dr. Hall

Question:

What dimension of your life has required the most tenacity?