T is for tenacity
Tenacity is a fundamental cornerstone of my character. Persistent, stubborn and obstinate compound and convert into outcomes. Sometimes the outcomes are good (even great). Sometimes the outcomes are not very flattering or helpful. Tenacity can land you right in the middle of No Place going Nowhere. Tenacity can also deposit you at the peak of perfection. But tenacity s not for the timid or meek. Tenacity requires pertinence and persistence and even a bit of ridiculousness and absurdity. Where others will say its time to quit, I keep going. I was always reluctant to call a code. I hated being Code Leader. Not because I refused to let people officially die. But because right after the next jump in joules, the dormant heart might respond. Give it time. Keep at it. Give them a chance.
Despite my childhood conversion to Catholicism, I have a very Protestant work ethic. I had two very Protestant parents raised by very hard scrabble, poor, white, Protestant Southerners. Our motto: Keep at it. Work harder. Try one more time. Effort in equals reward out. Watch Phillip Zimbardo’s lecture at RSAnimate.org called the Secret Powers of Time. Tenacity pays off. Tenacity may also look insane to the non-tenacious. People often define insanity as doing the same thing over and over and getting the same outcome. But I ask….define the parameters of “over and over”. How many times equals “over and over”? Two times? Ten times? A hundred times? For me, tenacity is doing something more times than most other people do things….being willing to push one more attempt. Once I have exceeded everyone elses’s attempts and then I fail….then I know it’s insane to go further. So I am a bit insane (according to other people’s definition of over-and-over) but also tenacious.