Perseverance, Persistence

There is a difference between these two words, but basically they mean the same as far as intensity of thought and behavior is concerned. To persevere and persist mean to have the ability to stick with something to the end, to keep going with determination and refuse to stop until the goal is achieved or there is a dead end. Perseverance is associated more with endurance and hardship and may entail a reward for not backing down. A famous Roman poet, Ovid, who wrote mythological poems, wrote, "Endure and persevere, this pain will turn good by and by." Persistence, on the other hand, is not so much enduring hardship and using intense effort as it is a tenacious hanging on until the end. Either way, if people are persevering and persistent, they are earnest and go forth in a methodical way despite obstacles, difficulties, and distractions without complaining. They are serious about the accomplishment and completion of a goal and pursue it in an eager, conscientious, devoted, heartfelt, open, and genuine way. Persevering people are: unshakable, steady, inflexible, unyielding, unfaltering, relentless, resolute, and determined. Persistence is more than trying. Trying is an attempt to perform an action or endeavor to accomplish something, but the intensity and effort are not there. Persistent people are steadfast and do not waver or budge in their belief, effort, plan, or even refusal. People who carry on persist in an enterprise or undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition, or discouragement. If they are not persevering, the options are to give up, give in, submit to, and to succumb to and surrender. The industrialist and philanthropist who founded Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller, had this to say about perseverance, "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." "Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into thin air," is a quote by John Qunicy Adams. We have to believe in ourselves and our passions and dreams, and it often takes perseverance to see them through and not become discouraged. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, was rejected by 12 publishers.