An unyielding persistence demands a strength beyond endurance. Beyond motivation, beyond courage. It lies in depths few care to reach. While there’s a less demanding, well-traveled path of least resistance – repeated failures make you stronger, more determined, forcing you to supplement your previous strategies with new tools. Tools that only surface after you’ve expended yourself entirely. After you’ve decided, you will never give up.
You will eventually break through; the faint, optimistic voice inside offers subtle assurances that keep you going. Difficult problems are solved from a considerable, consistent effort. It will, however, take ten-thousand hours.
In cognitively demanding fields, there are no naturals. Nobody walks into an operating room, straight out of a surgical rotation, and does world-class neurosurgery.
– Malcom Gladwell
The path may be long, but continuance – obstinate and unrelenting – is the only way breakthroughs are born.