PERSEVERANCE
A large collection of unfinished collections and an extensive file of “Projects” full of unfinished projects are the best proof of a lack of perseverance.
As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, “In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world, all rests on perseverance.”
Despite failures, abandonments, delusions, and unfinished adventures, we keep pushing ahead, refining, reducing, and re-focusing plans to achieve the unreachable star of a virtuous life.
Let us return to the dictionary: “Perseverance”: the continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition; persisting in the course of action, steadfast.”
Motorcycling is a good teacher of perseverance: within each ride, the virtuous rider tries to apply with consciousness a system of competent biking; attempts to use fundamental virtues that make each ride more enjoyable and more significant.
In short, we try to get out of the bike a better human than the one I was at the initial drop of the clutch.
But unfortunately, success seems just around the corner, and it is just around that corner that the limits of my knowledge, attention, and skill become evident, sometimes in a dramatic form.
Therefore, when confronted with a mistake in riding, one with significant consequences or just a brief loss of control, we should apply self-criticism and test our perseverance and commitment to learn from mistakes and change for the better.
Perseverance as “persisting in the course of action” can also indicate a rejection of change, an obtuse permanence in “what I always did”.
For this reason, Perseverance must be accompanied by integrity, a virtue that, in current corrupt times, is going out of fashion. A young generation is growing with the absolute refusal of a political class that has been proven corrupt, lying and lacking integrity in many countries.
Integrity, the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles wholly and constantly, is the right engine of perseverance.
Without the honest gift of “integrity”, perseverance is lost: we leave our judgement to be corrupted by blaming the machine (the setting, the suspensions, the tires, the brakes), blaming others (companions on the ride, road users, animals), accusing the road (weather, surface conditions, gravel, obstacles of any kind), ultimately, blaming everything else but our response-ability.
We look for reasons outside ourselves to justify our mistakes, lack of knowledge, and attention.
We reject responsibility because accepting it would mean admitting that we must change. And change is always tricky: better to call the event an accident and stop riding or continue to ignore it.
It is not an accident but a mistake and, for many, an excellent reason to stop riding, to give up on perseverance.
To be active, perseverance demands meaning, a goal to reach, a desire to get it, and a discipline of self-evaluation. On motorcycling, perseverance means aiming for excellent bike control and consistent riding skills.
The system of the UK POLICE ROADCRAFT and the MOTOSIKLETTE TAM KONTROL MANUAL* helps in fixing a simple but demanding goal: to fully respect the system in each ride, trying to reduce the mistakes to zero. And a worthy goal, a desire for perfection, and a standard of quality to reach is the best motivator to use perseverance.
When riding, the desire is all there: perfection on the system and concentration on the road and the self.
The evaluation examines the faults made, registers them, and focuses on eliminating them on the next ride. Every minute on the saddle is an opportunity to improve thinking, attitude, and skills, and all this keeps perseverance alive and working.
When failing (big or small mistake), the goal is still there, and perfection is still reachable… it only requires more knowledge and discipline.
Reaction in front of the mistakes, in front of the limits, in front of the ignorance is where PERSEVERANCE comes into play: I can give up, so many have done so, and I will have all the right to join a company. I can also find excuses for giving up: lack of time, more exciting and rewarding activities, pressure from mediocre peers, and the good excuses list to the infinite ego.
Perseverance is the training field of integrity and humility: facing mistakes and limitations is the courage and strength to reopen the challenge and try again with the same passion and enthusiasm as the first time.
Sometimes being perseverant works, sometimes it does not; nevertheless, “It is this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. (Thomas Carlyle)
