There\u2019s a Japanese saying: \u201cFall down seven times, get up eight\u201d. It\u2019s about not giving up, continuing to try, even in the face of repeated failure. The I CHING, the book of divination in Chinese philosophy, sums up this mind-set in the words \u201cPerseverance furthers!\u201d I\u2019ve had a lot of failure in my life. A failed marriage. Failure to meet many of my life\u2019s goals. Failure to be the best person I could be, even when I knew what it would take to be that person.<\/p>\n
The important thing is to keep trying, even when you feel you lack the energy, initiative, or motivation to make the effort. But it\u2019s not always so clear what constitutes lack of perseverance, and what is sensible restraint. Recently I went hiking in Canada.\u00a0 I set out to climb a fairly large mountain. At the start of the climb, I set a limit on myself. I would walk until a certain time, and then I would turn around, whether or not I had reached the summit.\u00a0 I did this because a few months ago, I summited a peak in Vermont, and paid the price for not turning around when I knew I should, suffering cramps in both legs and a painful descent.<\/p>\n
In Vermont I reached the summit. In Canada, I turned back within a couple kilometers of the top, when I reached my set time. Which hike was a success and which a failure? That\u2019s the second great watchword of the I CHING:\u00a0 \u201cWatch the timing!\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay persevering, and watch the timing of your actions.\u00a0 Those two phrases, taken together, constitute a simple set of guidelines for how to live.\u00a0 Keep trying but don\u2019t waste yourself on useless endeavors. .\u00a0 Be consistent and not either impulsive or slow to act.\u00a0 Teddy Roosevelt said \u201cIn any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing<\/i>.\u201d But ol\u2019 Teddy didn\u2019t have it quite right. Sometimes, the right thing is to do nothing. It\u2019s all in knowing, sensing, intuiting, when to act, when to hold back. When to continue the struggle and when to withdraw. Are you a persevering person?\u00a0 Do you have good timing?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a Japanese saying: \u201cFall down seven times, get up eight\u201d. It\u2019s about not giving up, continuing to try, even in the face of repeated failure. The I CHING, the book of divination in Chinese philosophy, sums up this mind-set in the words \u201cPerseverance furthers!\u201d I\u2019ve had a lot of failure in my life. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-body-and-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZxW-Cj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}