Is Persistence Really Worth It?
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen. And to that quote I add the question “so why go above and beyond? Is persisting on an idea really worth the try?” We often want things simply because they are fed to our minds. Every day, we are exposed to thousands of images selling us products of what the ideal way of living should be. We are constantly exposed to a world of advertising whether from the comfort of our homes through television, websites, or video games or away from home through billboards, magazines, and etc.
We catch ourselves obsessed with movies and television, wrapped around the “perfect” lives and scenarios of characters we either wish we were or actually knew in real life. We desire Monica’s Greenwich Village apartment or Claire Fisher’s lime green hearse. Monkey sees and monkey does! We fall into these corporate traps and the next thing we know it’s three in the morning and we’re on Amazon shopping for a $30 periodic table shower curtain because it’s the same one from The Big Bang Theory when the dollar store sells one just as good for $5.
Every ad campaign we see is photoshopped and air-brushed into perfection to make it more appealing for the eye. We see celebrities in these ads, the same faces that play the characters we get emotionally attached to, looking “hot” on covers of magazines. We ogle these images and desire to become what we see spread across them. I, personally, have those images on my bedroom wall. Rolling Stone covers that I see first thing in the morning when I wake up and last thing before I go to bed. Images of people I am inspired by but that one day betrayed me into feeling ashamed about my own body and ending up in a disastrous jogging episode. I looked at them one day and realized I was getting out of shape and needed to look thinner or more toned so I desperately tried to shed weight by going on a 10 mile run that ended up injuring me for weeks. I learned my lesson and realized what I was persisting was useless. I was fine the way I looked and the real world was not photoshopped.
I have always been a lazy person and in my opinion being lazy pays off more than persistence and chasing tails. Bill Gates once said “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” And he couldn’t be any more correct. Simply by controlling my diet I know I am able to shed the same amount of weight it’d take me months to lose by sweating on a treadmill worry and pain free. Lao Tzu said “Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.” Getting things done right is simply accepting reality and the fact that everything takes time regardless of how much hard work you put into it. By doing those things you learn that living worry free is way more fun than getting stuck in unnecessary stressful situations.
In Sarah Andrew’s memoir “Seaside Platter” she talks about her persistence to present her final piece into a school art show. She talks about her fears of missing the deadline, having to start fresh, or even quitting before she finally goes with her own timing and finishes her one original project. This proceeds into her winning the contest under the best sculpture category. This is the perfect example to prove my point. Even though she persisted on finishing what she had already started and putting her mind and hard work to complete the project, she followed her own instincts and took her own time and in the end it paid off way more than if she had rushed for quantity as opposed to quality.
In Jacqueline’s blog, she states “I have decided I will do less chasing, more pondering, and while I’m showing up on a daily basis to the do the things I think are important, I will no longer dwell on the future. I’m learning how to do less in the present.” One could obsess with the idea of what “success” in life is defined by lies on the images we see every day and bust your ass in law school to become a successful lawyer and work for the best law firm in New York City, a real life Patty Hewes, and live in a duplex in the heart of Manhattan. But I see life in a different way. I know I am capable of doing what I want to strive, but I also know that patience is the real key to getting there by taking my own steps in my own pace.
As a lazy person I demand less of life and others. I don’t need to persist on trying something new, into succeeding at something for reasons that don’t complete me in happiness just to know I was capable of doing something. Knowing I can is simple enough for me and doing things only when needed will get me through life. And I know that by doing so, my life will be happy. Take that, corporate ads!