Perseverance

Perseverance mode is learned in childhood as a natural response to a lack of support from parents or peers. It evolves from an attempt to overcome adversity and the belief that you need to prove yourself by succeeding where others do not. Otherwise, you have no value or legitimate claim on being a mover and shaker in the world. Perseverance is commonly linked to Stoic attitudes, and is more endurance oriented. It fixates on the perception that strength is all a matter of commitment and will. Individuals doing Perseverance pride themselves on their ability to endure challenges and seek to build momentum toward a goal by repeating it in ways that constantly seek in small ways to improve the situation. In this way, Perseverance individuals reflects an incremental approach, believing that toughening themselves up is going to get them where they need to go.

They focus on overcoming resistance (their own and others) at all costs. They desire carefully designed step-by-step plans where, if an obstacle occurs, they can re-group and engage the process again. They are able to deal with many hardships in life better than individuals in other Modes. They comfort themselves by believing that the obstacles they overcome make them better people. When they engage options, they can see the upside and downside and weigh the situation effectively. They can easily be persistent without becoming overly attached. The benefit is that they can become enduring without thinking of themselves as victims of the process. Finally, they can become goal-oriented without becoming fixated on the details. They can carry out big, long-term projects without the need for positive feedback. The characteristic of being unflappable in the face of what others perceive as a challenge is one of the best indicators of natural Perseverance. Ironically, it is not their toughness, but their humility and vulnerability in the face of overwhelming odds that is heroic. Approximately 10-12% use Perseverance in some natural way, but only 8% use it as their primary Mode.

Perseverance imprinted individuals cannot give up when things are not going well. They are easily identified by their tenacity in making things work before they let something go. Their belief is that they cannot let the circumstance or situation get them down so they feel the need to prove themselves before they move forward. Individuals with natural Perseverance are even more ingrained in this process, believing that they should not leave a relationship until they know how to fix it. This accentuates a constant re-enactment of their problems until they are willing to confront. The downside is that they do not realize that it is often their assumptions that need to be challenged. At their core, individuals with Perseverance imprinting confuse situational assumptions with life and death struggles in their past. What they most want to cover up is how they were at the affect of their caretakers’ willingness to support them. Their unwillingness to confront this vulnerability, leads them to confuse current needs to change with previous traumas where they didn’t have a choice about how to respond differently.

As a result, they cannot see new options, opportunities or when change is appropriate. What this means is that natural Perseverance has no choice about how to engage a particular situation. For example, a fear of being rejected or alone, places a Perseverance individual in this fear where they cannot engage any new options (other than what they had at that traumatic time). They can be identified by the belief that they just have to go a little deeper to understand and appreciate the pattern so that they can move forward. Unfortunately, they find themselves unable to do so as long as the fear keeps re-emerging and dominating their life. Imprinted Perseverance individuals, on the other hand, have more flexibility about who and what to engage and for how long. The important thing to remember is that this Perseverance trauma of not considering choices can become a useful tool to motivate them to embrace change.

It forces them to realize how capable they really are at overcoming life’s challenges. Healing Perseverance means learning how to use the inner concentration and focus in a way that can actually be more directed to meet a new situation rather than to deal with old ones. Persons who are imprinted in Perseverance are not willing admit anything and instead become more stubborn and dogged in their efforts. The more they are imprinted in this Mode, the more likely they are to lack spontaneity and end up being unconscious about the affect their imprinting is having on others. Usually this shows up as a rigidity as to what possibilities they see in any particular situation. Perseverance imprinted individuals like to have pre-structured responses that have been deemed safe because of past practices. Any new way of being is resisted and or questioned until it has demonstrated its current appropriateness or value. Ironically, the more imprinted people are with Perseverance, the more unwilling they are to get out of personal, professional, and financial relationships that are not working.

They have to succeed in some way before they can call it quits because they never want to end on a down note. Imprinted Perseverers want to appear that they are not hurt, shaken, or concerned by the lack of progress being made, but it is not true. Their choices are diminished and their attachments to success become greater, keeping them from recognizing when to leave a situation. Also, they demand feedback, believing that each and every obstacle is a personal attack on their well-being. They seek to prove their capabilities no matter what the odds. The more people care what others think, the more it is the imprinting of Perseverance constructing a false toughness and stoic framework that is unreasonable and unsustainable. They eventually breakdown and succumb to the process when they find themselves completely isolated and unsupported, while those in natural Perseverance keep merrily going on. This means it is even more confusing when an individual has both natural and imprinted Perseverance. In this situation, they will find themselves vacillating between their natural strength and faking it. Until they know the difference, there is no way out of this dilemma. The result is that they will crash and burn in certain areas, revealing where they are inauthentic. This allows them to re-integrate these disassociated areas and with humility, find more natural ways to respond.

Primary Focus—Chosen when the spirit wants to be sure that the personality will follow through on difficult lessons or life tasks.
Responsive characteristics—Persistent, enduring, goal-oriented, able to carry out long-term projects, aims, or goals.
Reactive characteristics— Immutable, unchangeable, dogged, lacking spontaneity, driven, repetitive.
Number of individuals primarily using this mode: 14%.
Examples: Thomas Edison, Lee Iacocca, Abraham Lincoln, Sir. Thomas Shackelton, Peggy Fleming, Chuck Norris, OJ Simpson, Diane Feinstein, and Mother Theresa