Perseverance is a person’s ability to stand firm on a decision or work consistently toward a goal without giving up, even in the face of the most difficult obstacles. For example, playing the guitar every day until you’ve completely mastered the musical instrument.
This quality is valued in many organizations because it reflects individuals who are able to endure long periods of learning and perfecting an activity, or trying again and again until they achieve the desired results.
- It may be useful for you: Personal objectives or goals
Perseverance as a positive value
Perseverance is related to other attitudes towards life, such as:
- Commitment to the projects undertaken.
- The willpower to stand firm.
- Temperance to not give up.
- The certainty of being able to achieve what you set out to do.
- The endurance to maintain a goal over time.
Limits of perseverance
Although perseverance is generally seen as a positive attitude, it can be a quality with negative connotations, for two reasons:
- If the goal you’re trying to achieve is unrealistic. For example: A person who spends a lot of money on creams to stay young forever.
- If the goal you want to achieve is petty. For example: A person so obsessed with owning a luxury car that they commit a crime to get it.
Examples of perseverance
- A man who takes the exam to obtain his license as a lawyer every year until he succeeds.
- A father who repeats the multiplication tables with his son until he memorizes them.
- A person who buys the lottery every week.
- A musician who practices a Mozart piece on the violin until he plays it perfectly.
- A craftsman who makes models of a sculpture until it is perfect.
- An athlete who participates in a competition with the hope of becoming the winner.
- A chef who prepares the same dish using different recipes in order to perfect it.
- A singer who strives to perform a song correctly.
- A young woman who tries in many ways to ask a boy out, hoping that at some point he will accept.
- A student who sets a goal to achieve the highest academic achievements each year.
- A teacher who insists on repeating the elements of the periodic table until his students learn them.
- A foreigner who travels to another country and tries to learn the language quickly so he can communicate fluently.
- A father who educates his children well.
- A young man who reads all of Marcel Proust’s books.
- A collector who seeks out and buys all the paintings by a painter he likes, going to all the auctions where he can acquire them.
- A person who saves until he has the money to buy a house.
- A woman who strives to become a good chess player.
- A child struggling to recite English numbers from one to one thousand.
- An actor who auditions every year for a theater group hoping to become part of it.
- A person who decides to build a house without help from scratch.
- An individual who keeps trying to quit smoking.
- An athlete who trains to become the best in the world at his sport.
- A personal trainer who goes to one of his clients’ homes every day to help them work out.
- A student who gets up very early every day to learn the lesson.
- Two lovers who have been married for more than fifty years.
- A subject who makes the decision not to eat flour for a year.
- A visual artist who never stops making art, even if he doesn’t sell a single painting.
- A politician who strives to become president of his country.
- A music lover who listens to classical music every day until he can recognize the symphonies of the greatest composers in history.
- A person who, after an accident, undergoes recovery until they regain full mobility of their body.
- A coworker who strives to always be happy.
- An individual who learns from his mistakes and never stops improving.
- A subject who falls and gets up again and again.
- A girl learning to ride a bike.
- A young man who has dinner every Sunday with his grandparents to keep them company.
- A deaf person who learns to play a musical instrument.
- An adult who decides to finish his studies.
- A writer who accumulates original manuscripts and continues writing, even when publishers reject him.
- An environmental activist who protests every month against polluting companies.
- A journalist who regularly sends his portfolio to television channels in the hope of being hired.
- An inventor who develops prototypes of things that may never be sold with the intention of changing the world.
- A chef who travels the world to learn the best recipes from different cultures.
- A couple who decides to go on a diet and take care of their health until they are healthy.
- A senator who insists on introducing bills to improve his province.
- An individual who opens a savings account to save enough money to travel around the world.
- A footballer who wins the World Cup.
- A singer who practices non-stop until he reaches the highest notes perfectly.
- A person who spends an hour every day putting together a five-thousand-piece puzzle.
- A student who is dedicated to applying for all the scholarships to achieve several graduate school options.
- A filmmaker looking for resources to be able to film his movie.




