How perseverance helps you in writing an admission essay about yourself

Perseverance gives a continuous drive to reach goals and improve performance through persistent effort, which requires long-term commitment and is fueled by passion. 

What is perseverance?

According to psychology experts, perseverance is related to the individual’s ability to delay gratification and practice self-control in order to reach success. Perseverance requires the right prioritization for future long-term rewards over short-term pleasures in the present moment. Perseverance includes elements of motivation and determination, or in other words, this is a form of purposefulness and goal-orientation that is impossible without discipline. 

Angela Duckworth states that all forms of learning require perseverance. No matter what you are doing as a student or a worker, you need to have this trait. Whether you are learning a new language, developing public speaking skills, mastering an instrument, or researching available resources for your self reflection essay, you are doing all this thanks to the perseverance you have. As you see, perseverance ensures progress and our cognitive, physical, and psycho-social development. Psychologists say that this trait is inextricably linked to ambition and perfectionism. 

Perseverance is one of the key character strengths, which in combination with passion equals grit. To make it clear, Angela Duckworth understands passion as a strong consistency of interest that provides motivation for long-term goals. She believes that grit is a critical quality for success that matters even more than abilities and inborn talents. This statement was supported by numerous studies showing that individuals with grit are much more likely to succeed in life than those who lack it. 

Key components of perseverance 

Angela Duckworth has thoroughly researched this psychological phenomenon and found out that it requires four essential ingredients, such as interest, practice, purpose, and hope. Let’s consider each of them in more detail. 

Perseverance is impossible without following your core passions. But first, you need to discover them. You can do this by trying new things, experimenting, and developing your interests. Once you know what interests you most, you should practice it deliberately. Practice means that you are honing your skills, setting challenging stretch goals, and getting feedback. In this context, purpose refers to the desire to make the world a better place and to help others, while hope is all about the belief that our efforts matter for improving our future. 

Why is perseverance important?

There are so many qualities essential for getting a degree, including intelligence, creativity, ambition. They are necessarily required if you hope to overcome the barriers while entering the university. However, the role of perseverance in academic success remains less considered or even underappreciated. Instead, people praise cleverness and creativity a lot, maybe because they are typically recognized as something exceptional and inspiring. But given the challenges and roadblocks thrown up along the way of getting an education, perseverance is crucial for students. 

Student life consists of numerous failures and a lot of things that break against you. Sometimes, it may seem easier to give up or start complaining about the unfairness of the education system. But instead, it would be better to persevere and work to fix what you can. It’s impossible to be a brilliant student without determination, even though it is not perceived as the coolest or most powerful trait. Refusal to quit is the thing that can help us to get to where we want to be in life. It’s vital to navigate the challenges and withstand trials occurring at college. 

In fact, perseverance makes you more trustworthy because people around know that you won’t quit, no matter how hard the situation gets. Also, it adds self-confidence and increases your sense of self-worth, which is so necessary to be enrolled in the institution you are dreaming about. 

How can students develop perseverance?

Now that you realize how important perseverance is, you are probably wondering how to develop it. So here is the answer: set the right goals you truly care about. Note that your objectives must be interesting and valuable to you, as well as specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART). 

Another way to work on this trait is to plan a detailed roadmap to your desired destination. But note that planning is neither rigid nor a one-time activity, instead it’s a flexible, and continuous process that takes place all the time until you achieve your goals. If you have a look at short perseverance essays for downloading, you will see that experts recommend reviewing your work after reaching each milestone. While planning, you also need to identify potential obstacles and problems, so you get more prepared to tackle them as they arise.

Professionals working in the psychology field say that perseverance is not just blind stubbornness but it’s a combination of habit and special mental attitude. To translate your intentions into actions, you need to have a strong will and mental toughness. These two can make your dreams come true and develop perseverance. 

As mentioned above, perseverance can’t exist without motivation. Hence, you should always keep in mind the rewards of achieving success and associate perseverance with feeling good. If you view struggle and patience as a doorway to victory, you will more likely grow this trait. 

Final thoughts

Perseverance helps us in all the things we do in life, especially in learning. Even writing an admission essay becomes hard if you do not persevere. This is the core driver of success in academic contexts according to Duckworth and Quinn’s studies. The good news is that this quality can be learned through practice. Hopefully, this article has helped you to understand the role of perseverance and gave you insights on how to develop it.

Author’s BIO

Judy Nelson is a writer and life coach. Judy works mainly with students, helping them to successfully perform at college. She believes that the key to achieving great outcomes in an academic setting is perseverance.