My
personal definition of intellectual perseverance is the ability to press
through the complexity in one’s quest in fulfilling educational goals. Its entails the capacity to continue learning
beyond educational or institutional hurdles or barriers place beforehand. I see it as a distinct ability to acknowledge
adversity during an intellectual journey while incorporating a determination to
surpass institutionalized confrontations.
Intellectual perseverance becomes crucial when it comes to becoming
successful in life, because our success is not measured by what is given to us but
rather than what we earned or achieved through hard work. I think the most rewarding experiences are
the one’s that you are forced to put everything into. For example, excelling through school as opposed to doing
just enough to get by in class, you're ensuring that the quality of education is based on what you put into it. Adversity and
opposition is just a part of life. I
believe in order to overcome these obstacles; you have to train yourself to
deal with these situations. Just as if
one is in pursuit of becoming the greatest quarterback in NFL history. To align yourself on the path of becoming the
greatest, you have to train and continuously strive for perfection. Perseverance
is the drive that continuously strives a person to become better than what they
were yesterday. I think that practicing
the art of perseverance and resiliency is a very good way of staying sharp and on
top of your game. Having intellectual
perseverance is a trait of strong and defined character
I
believe that the best leaders are the leaders that led by example and from the
front. A leader, who has encountered
challenges that require them to persevere, will have a genuine relate ability
to their troops or subordinates. It is
both encouraging and reassuring for a member experiencing challenges to look up
to their leadership for guidance, knowing that they truly understand what they’re
going through. Throughout my career, I
have withstood a multitude of situations that tested my ability to intellectually persevere
through them. On plenty of occasions, I
was tasked for convoy escort duty on a few deployments to Iraq. At the time, I had to exercise intellectual
perseverance throughout the initial training and in making everyday
decisions. Such as learning the concepts
of properly plotting coordinates, route planning, equipment utilization and unit
mobilization. The reason why I took my
training so serious is because of the gravity of mission and the possibility of
casualties. It’s pretty simple, if
you’re not in the right state of mind to make these tough decisions, you’re putting
others at risk. Not knowing how to
handle the stress can cause one to mentally breakdown if its unfamiliar
territory for them, which can negatively affect your team and unit. This is just a reason why it’s so critical to
possess the ability to persevere throughout hardships.
However,
in my studies, I can’t say this has been a stroll in the park. It has certainly been a rough time throughout this journey, especially with trying to balance it out with a full-time job. There has been many times when I use tell
myself that I was done and that I think I’ve had enough. But continuing my formal studies was
something that I made up in my mind a long time ago and that I was going to accomplish this. I knew that this would take a great deal of time, sacrifice and determination, but I believe that it all will be worth it at the
end. I sit here and think to myself that there's reason why only a small number of the population ever live to achieve a certain level of education or expertise. Its simply because everyone can't persevere and push through. As for me, I'm going to keep pushing because I firmly believe I can continue to persevere.
