Find That Owl

Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, defines persistence as the "voluntary continuation of a goal-directed action in spite of obstacles, difficulties, or discouragement" . The element of challenge is important when talking about persistence because doing something for a long time that is easy or loads of fun doesn’t require persistence. My daughter would watch television for a week without food or sleep if she could!
It’s now very tempting to talk about Thomas Edison and others like him who kept at the task at hand despite repeated failure. In the case of Edison, as many of you know, it is said that he had thousands of failed experiments before he invented the light bulb. But what is often left out of a discussion of persistence is the need for judgment and self-esteem.
What got me thinking about this was a bird walk that I went on this past Saturday. From September through June the New York Botanical Gardens has a weekly bird walk at 11AM on Saturday. It’s been led for 24 years by Debbie Becker, an excellent birder with a tremendous knowledge of everything, including the birds, that you might encounter on a walk in the NYBG. On this last walk of the season she spotted a Great Horned owl high above us, actually looking down upon us as we looked at him! It took quite a while to find him, and I’ve been on this walk before when she’s given up without finding an owl.
It takes good judgment and wisdom to know when it is the time to quit and move on to something else. Debbie knows the area in which you would find the owl, and is persistent in looking for him or her (there are one of each in the area). However, she also knows that sometimes they’re someplace you just cannot see them, and when she has given it a good amount of time and effort, she moves on.
In general people with higher self-esteem are more likely to persist on a difficult task than people with lower self-esteem. Logic tells us that if you believe you are a competent person with a good chance of succeeding, you are less likely to quit. Debbie knows she has a better chance then most at spotting that owl.
It is also true that when you have been rewarded in the past for persistence you are more likely to persist on a future task-even if that future task is not directly related to the first. So this wasn’t the first time Debbie looked long and hard for a specific bird, and it is almost certain her repeated failures and success in this area has increased her ability to persist in other areas of her life. This is an important lesson for all of us to remember. Persistence in one area of your life will positively affect your self-esteem and spread out into other areas of your life.
Don’t you just hate it when you’ve been struggling to get that jar open and just as you give up, someone else picks it up and opens it with one twist? If only you had tried one more time! Here are some tips to strengthen your persistence muscle and build your self-esteem as a result:
Notice your thoughts about stopping a task, accept them, but don’t act upon them.
Make a plan that will support you in sticking to taking action towards achieving your goal.
When you lose focus on your task, direct your attention back to it.
Do things today that you could put off until tomorrow.
Never forget to acknowledge and reward yourself and celebrate sticking to it.