“Nothing
in the world can take the place of
perseverance.” ~
Calvin Coolidge
Good
Morning!
When I was
seventeen, I was a sophomore in college at
UW-Milwaukee. I worked full time five
days per week at a Big Boy restaurant on Kilbourn Street in Milwaukee.
I had Tuesdays and Thursdays off from work,
and on those days, I walked to campus where I fit in a full course load
between
9am and 9pm. The employee break room at
the restaurant was like many diner break rooms – kind of dark and
cluttered. Amid the clutter was an old
brown piece of wood with a fake-gold plaque mounted on it.
The plaque read:
“Nothing in the world can take the
place of
perseverance. Talent will not; nothing
is more common that 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
As a young teen,
I know many people thought I would not succeed
in life. I even read the magazines that
shared statistics of how “un-bright” my future looked. These
people and the “accredited news
magazines” relied on “facts,” some of which included: being raised in a
single-parent home (my dad left when I was eight months old), being in
a small
town, and being in “poverty” (while other people had more money, I dare
you to
find a home equal in love.) These
sources relied on statistics; I relied on heart.
The first time I
read that quote, I remember deciding it
needed to be polished and dusted.
I
carefully cleaned it, reading it a second time, and then gave it a more
prominent position in the break room.
I
read that quote many times over during every break I had. While I may not have been
raised with every
advantage in the world, I was taught the biggest advantage of all:
Nothing in
the world can take the place of perseverance.
Your Turn: Are there
any areas of your life where you think “you can’t” because
statistically you
don’t have the best odds? How
would
embracing the idea “Nothing in the world can take the place of
perseverance”
change your actions and possibly your results?
Today’s Affirmation:
Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. I
persevere.
