“You finish what you start. The industrious person takes on difficult projects and finishes them, ‘getting it out the door, with good cheer and minimal complaints. You do what you say you will do and sometimes more, never less.” (Source: VIA Institue)

The Noel Strengths Academy defines it this way:

•  Persistent people are “finishers” 

•  They push through obstacles 

•  They are resilient and hopeful 

•  To be persistent is to persevere and to be industriousness 

– “Persistence” is the voluntary continuation of a goal-directed action in spite of obstacles, difficulties, or discouragement. Simply measuring how long someone works at a task does not adequately capture the essence of persistence, because continuing to perform something that is fun or rewarding does not require one to endure and overcome setbacks. In this character strength we can use the terms perseverance, industriousness and persistence interchangeably.

Ghandi had some thoughts:

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

What Mark Twain has to add:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”