Tenacity: resolve, persistence, determination. I’ve been thinking a lot about tenacity lately:
- When I found myself covered in mud while digging out gravel and dirt to find a sprinkler valve leak (Hubby was visiting his family in Texas).
- When the printer I wanted (and needed) was on sale but out of stock at Best Buy, so I drove around town looking for another great deal.
- When I couldn’t find a place to copy my media kit that needs to accompany the books I’m sending to review editors (all of our printers are on the fritz and my Mac Pages file conflicted with Staple’s printers).
- When I finally found a place to print the media kit, and then noticed two missing words in the first line.
Tenacity: mulishness, doggedness, pigheadedness (Don’t you just love the animal references?)
Tenacity: Mulishness, Doggedness, Pigheadedness (Don’t you just love the animal references?)
Sure, self-publishing and marketing takes tenacity but so does living:
- When fear forms a lump the size of a man’s fist in the pit of your stomach and then twists; yet you push through anyway.
- When you acquiesce to hold a tiny angel in your arms knowing that this child will break your heart like the last one did.
- When you stand before a classroom full of rowdy students and the insults pelt you like rotten tomatoes from disgruntled viewers at one of those old-time theatre shows.
- When the person you’ve spent a lifetime loving, walks out the door and the only thing left is your torn up heart hanging from your chest.
Tenacity: Insistence, effort, get-up-and-go
At times, writing and living reach an impassable roadblock that requires taking the long way around. Or, going into overdrive, smashing through the splintery wood barrier, and four-wheeling it through underbrush, into potholes, and up steep embankments. You just must grit your teeth and continue regardless of all the perfectly good reasons that rationalize “You should give up, throw in the towel, cease and desist.”
My husband is the epitome of tenacity. If it wasn’t for his insistence on home improvement projects, our house and yard would lie in ruins. Recently, he decided to remove the towering maple tree—branch by branch—because the root system is destroying our block wall. I marvel at his fortitude as he climbs up on a ladder and saws off branches. The task would be too hard for me.
Although tenacity requires what we don’t feel like we possess, if we never tackled difficult challenges, the power kicks in. Eventually, we witness new growth.
So today I will return to the FedEx Office store with a corrected media kit. I’ll have copies made while my new printer is on its way. I’m not giving up and neither should you. Trust me, tenacity will kick in when you’re at the end of your frayed rope (the one ready to snap). I’ve been there…I know!
*Posted on Refrain with edits
JoDee Luna Art 