Practicing Perseverance
Today marks the 5th anniversary of the landing of NASA's Exploration Rover (Spirit) on the planet Mars. That may not seem like a big deal unless you realize that Spirit’s primary surface mission was planned to last a mere 90 sols. (A sol, or Martian solar day, is 24 hours, 39 minutes and some-odd seconds.) Experts estimated the rover might be there six months, tops. Now, five years later, despite dust storms and harsh conditions, Spirit is still sending back geological information from the Red Planet.
That’s more than 19 times longer than expected— talk about perseverance!
If you’re trying to reach a tough goal or to get through a hard time in your life right now, think of the Spirit. When dust storms rage and everyone predicts the worst, take a deep breath, duck your head down and keep forging ahead. Your inner strength can take you much farther than you’d ever imagine.
Tell us how you’re harnessing your own spirit today.
I am so low right now with pain from cancer drugs and bad arthritis pain, so this article came at the perfect time. Your e-mails go to places an individual does not think about because we have an overwhelming challenge. Thanks sooooo much!
Also, I liked melo804 comments. Good idea.
Perseverance is very hard to practice but I have found that meditation once a day for 10 minutes along with keeping thoughts of gratitude in my head when I am feeling like the world is against me truly helps. 2008 brought me a bad divorce, a job loss, and I am still at risk of losing my home to foreclosure due to no job. However, I try to keep a positive attitude even if I just acknowledge that I am healthy and have friends and family that care about me. Pretending to be happy helps in being happy.
Thankyou for the article. I appreciate things that help me to remember to keep on keeping on . Thanks agian.
I had a really rough 2008. I am tired of feeling sorry for myself. So I am looking for inspirational quotes that I can write on a dry erase board I keep on the fridge. As I write it down daily, I will keep it in my thoughts throughout the day. Hopefully, I will look for the positive side of things instead of the negative. There has to be one to everything.....right? : )