Three years ago, I was going through a really weird time. I had just moved from San Francisco, CA back to Tulsa, OK and it was January.
And if you haven’t spent time in Oklahoma during January & February, well, it’s brutal.
No sunshine. Biting, wet cold. Grey skies most of the time… No more skiing. No more oceans. No more hustle & bustle in downtown SF.
I ended up purchasing a cork board from Amazon and putting it up on my wall in my bedroom. I was desperate for some inspiration. Over the course of the next couple weeks, I put up a series of 3×5 note cards with various ideas, goals, and quotes. One of which is the reason for this post.
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge
Spend time with most kids these days and you’ll realize an interesting difference between their childhood and your childhood. That difference is screens. Internet. Games.
That difference is tablets that cost less than a steak dinner at the outback steakhouse.
We now live in a world where all information is at the tip of our fingers. And available in a snap. Now it seems the challenge is sorting out truth. Either way, we are entering into a world where the trait of persistence has become a superpower.
Much of our modern young generation is growing up without cultivating this trait. And why would they need to? If they are bored or unsuccessful at a new thing, all they need to do is click the home button on their tablet and they’re seconds away from immersive entertainment on YouTube.
And why would I need to shop for groceries or cook dinner when I can just get take-out? Wait a second, take-out is so last-decade, haven’t you even heard of DoorDash?
I’ve seen this firsthand and it scares me for our future. My childhood was filled with hour-long Lego projects, building models, playing outside for 4+ hours at a time. How different are childhoods today?
They say that nothing worth having comes easy. Which makes me wonder, how often are we doing hard things today? How often do we find ourselves needing to exercise this trait of persistence?
We used to have to grow our own food, walk places, read books, speak to people on the phone or in person, shop at markets or malls.
Sometimes our progress inadvertently causes regress.
And if we aren’t paying attention, technology might cost us our freedom without realizing it.