Here you will learn Lesson Plan On Perseverance, What Is Success
Page 16 of
50.
He
stops up his ears so as not to hear the voices of the chimes that would warn him
of catastrophes ahead, and even when these have happened, he still stubbornly
denies his error, throwing the blame for his unsuccess upon occurrences which
have absolutely nothing to do with the events concerned.
One must not fall, however, into the opposite excess and allow oneself to become
discouraged at the slightest opposition.
The innate quality of true perseverance, as we have pointed out, is the ability
to judge with certainty, which enables us to exactly estimate the value of any
argument, and also to appreciate the spirit in which it was offered to us.
Without allowing ourselves to fall into that chronic state of distrust that
borders upon the mania of persecution, it is a very good thing to be able to get
the point of view of the envy that suffers from all successes achieved by other
people, and will do its utmost to prevent another person from undertaking
anything that will be likely to become a source of irritation to its self-love
by succeeding.
A very frequent form of obstinacy is that which is familiarly known as the "
fixed idea," that is to say the persistence of a single idea that has become so
exaggerated that it finally develops into an obsession from which nothing can
turn those who have fallen victims to it.
The fixed idea is an exaggerated form of perseverance. It leads in feeble minds
to the obstinate domination of an ideal pursued, without leaving any room at all
for opposing thoughts.
In the case of fixed ideas, one's whole horizon is confined and closed.
The mind, from constant concentration upon a single line of thought, refuses to
take cognizance of any other.
If such a thought does obtrude itself for a moment upon the consciousness, it is
immediately banished, or, at the best, with complete disregard of consequences,
it is set aside to make room for others that will fall in readily with the
dominating idea.
Just as fast as such thoughts occur the man who has become the victim of the
fixed idea transforms and makes them over until they become adapted to harmonize
with the one controlling obsession that clouds his brain.
Pushed to its utmost limit the fixed idea becomes a monomania.
This state of mind has the essential characteristic of causing every occurrence,
whatever its nature may happen to be, to take on the color of the dominant
thought that one cultivates so sedulously.
Things which, at the first glance, seem to be absolutely incompatible with this
point of view, and quite at variance with the obsession in question, always
become a part of it in the end. They become bound to it by threads more or less
slender, but which, after a thousand twists and turns, ultimately attach
themselves fast to it, thus effecting a heterogeneous jumble of ideas in which
the victim of the obsession will always manage in some mysterious way to find a
point of contact.
Obsession takes place, generally speaking, at the moment when the obstinacy,
pushed to its utmost limits, no longer allows one's physical forces any sort of
control over the mental.
It is for this reason that we are witnesses of so many occurrences that leave us
lost in wonder.
"With the best intentions in the world, there are painters who, because they
have been struck dumb some evening by the accentuated violet tones of the
twilight, view everything from the standpoint of this color and take to painting
violet trees, lilac women, and heliotrope children.
Our
featured links related to Lesson Plan On Perseverance, What Is Success