Perseverance

About perseverance

What it is, why it happens and what helps. Contents:

• What is perseverance?
• Grit: passion and perseverance
• What the grit research found
• Growth mindset
• The power of “yet”
• Praise effort, not talent
• Deliberate practice
• Finding your purpose
• Growing your interest
• Resilience is ordinary magic
• Three habits of resilient people
• Self-compassion keeps you going
• Planning for obstacles
• Knowing when to rest or change course
• Encouraging perseverance in children
• Inspiration from history
• A simple 30-day plan
• How self-help methods fit in
• FAQs

What is perseverance?

Perseverance means continuing to work towards a goal despite difficulty, delay or discouragement. It shows up in the student who keeps practising maths after a bad test, the musician who plays scales every day, the parent who keeps gently trying new approaches and the founder who keeps improving a product. Perseverance isn’t about never feeling like giving up. It’s about what you do when you feel that way. The encouraging message from decades of research is that perseverance can be grown. You can explore related topics in our Wellness hub and our guide to motivation.

Grit: passion and perseverance

Psychologist Angela Duckworth, of the University of Pennsylvania, popularised the term “grit”, which she defines as passion and perseverance for long-term goals. Gritty people keep working towards the same top-level goal over years, even through setbacks. Duckworth found that grit is not the same as talent, and that it can grow over a lifetime. Her TED talk, “Grit: the power of passion and perseverance”, is one of the most watched talks on the subject and is in Videos, along with a longer interview about turning grit into a lifelong habit.

What the grit research found

In a series of studies, Duckworth and her colleagues measured grit using a short questionnaire. They found that grittier cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point were more likely to complete their demanding first summer of training, and grittier children went further in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. [5] A shorter version of the questionnaire, the Short Grit Scale, was later developed and tested. [6] You can take a version of the Grit Scale for free on Duckworth’s website. Her book Grit shares what she learned from studying people who persist across many fields.

Growth mindset

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck describes two ways people can think about ability. With a fixed mindset, you see abilities as set in stone. With a growth mindset, you see them as things that can develop through effort, good strategies and help from others. People with a growth mindset tend to see challenges as chances to learn and setbacks as information, which makes it easier to keep going. A large national study in the United States, led by David Yeager and published in Nature, found that a short online growth-mindset programme improved grades among lower-achieving secondary school students. [1] Dweck’s TED talk is in Videos.

The power of “yet”

One of Dweck’s simplest ideas is to add the word “yet”. “I can’t do this” becomes “I can’t do this yet.” “I’m not good at public speaking” becomes “I’m not good at public speaking yet.” That one word turns a dead end into a path. Try it this week whenever you notice a fixed-mindset thought. Her TEDx talk on the power of yet is in Videos.

Praise effort, not talent

How we praise ourselves and others matters. In a classic set of studies, Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck found that children praised for their intelligence were more likely to choose easy tasks and persisted less after a setback than children praised for their effort. [7] Effort praise helped children enjoy challenges and keep trying. Try praising the process: “You kept trying different ways”, “You really stuck with that” or, for yourself, “I showed up even when it was hard.”

Deliberate practice

Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson studied how people become highly skilled. He found that top performers spend a lot of time in “deliberate practice”: focused work on specific weaknesses, just beyond their current ability, with feedback. [2] It is not simply repetition. A violinist might play one tricky passage slowly and repeatedly rather than run through pieces they already know. Deliberate practice can feel demanding, but it builds skill steadily, and seeing that progress makes it easier to persevere. Ericsson’s book Peak, written with Robert Pool, explains the approach for everyday readers.

Finding your purpose

People tend to persevere longer when they know why their goal matters. Duckworth found that many of the grittiest people she studied connected their work to a purpose beyond themselves: helping others, contributing to a cause or creating something meaningful. Write down your answers to these questions: Why does this goal matter to me? Who else benefits if I succeed? What will I be proud of in five years? Keep your answers somewhere you will see them on difficult days. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, wrote about how a sense of meaning helps people endure great hardship.

Growing your interest

Duckworth points out that passion usually develops gradually. Most people do not start with a fixed calling. They try things, notice what keeps drawing them back and deepen that interest over time through learning and practice. If you don’t yet feel passionate about something, that’s completely normal. Stay curious, experiment and pay attention to what you enjoy. Our guide to creativity has ideas for exploring new interests.

Resilience is ordinary magic

Resilience is the ability to recover and adapt after difficulty. Psychologist Ann Masten, who has studied resilience in children for decades, called it “ordinary magic”: it arises from ordinary human resources, such as caring relationships, problem-solving skills, hope and a sense of meaning, rather than rare or special qualities. [8] That means everyone can strengthen it. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University explains how supportive relationships build resilience in its short video in Videos.

Three habits of resilient people

Resilience researcher Lucy Hone, from New Zealand, shares three strategies in her TEDx talk:

1. Accept that hard times are part of life. Struggle doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.
2. Choose where to focus your attention. Notice what you can change and what is still good.
3. Ask “Is this helping or harming me?” A simple question to guide your choices.

These ideas are simple to remember on difficult days. Her talk is in Videos.

Self-compassion keeps you going

It is tempting to push yourself with harsh words, but research suggests kindness works better. Juliana Breines and Serena Chen found that people who responded to a failure with self-compassion were more motivated to improve and studied longer for a retest. [4] Kristin Neff, a pioneer of self-compassion research, talks in Videos about common worries people have about self-compassion, such as fearing it will make them lazy. [9] When things go wrong, try speaking to yourself as you would to a good friend who was struggling.

Planning for obstacles

Perseverance is easier when you expect the bumps. Write down the obstacles most likely to get in your way, such as tiredness, busy weeks or self-doubt, then make an if-then plan for each one: “If I’m too tired to practise for 30 minutes, then I’ll practise for 5.” If-then plans have strong research support for helping people follow through. [3] Gabriele Oettingen’s free WOOP tool, listed in our free resources, offers a simple way to plan for obstacles too.

Knowing when to rest or change course

Perseverance doesn’t mean ignoring your limits. Rest is part of staying power. Athletes, musicians and students all perform better with recovery built in. Sometimes the wise choice is to change your approach while keeping the same bigger goal. Duckworth suggests staying steady on your top-level goal while being flexible about the lower-level goals and tactics that serve it. If you feel exhausted most of the time, our guide to burnout may help.

Encouraging perseverance in children

Parents, teachers and coaches can help children grow perseverance. Praise effort and strategies rather than talent. [7] Share stories of your own struggles and how you kept going. Encourage children to stick with one activity for a set period, such as a term or season, before deciding whether to continue. Talk about the brain growing stronger with practice. Above all, warm and supportive relationships are one of the strongest foundations for resilience. [8]

Inspiration from history

History is full of people who kept going. Thomas Edison tested many materials before finding a practical light bulb filament. J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter manuscript was turned down by several publishers before it found a home. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison and went on to lead South Africa towards reconciliation. Malala Yousafzai continued to speak up for girls’ education around the world. Each story is a reminder that setbacks are often part of the journey rather than the end of it.

A simple 30-day plan

Week 1: Purpose. Choose one goal and write down why it matters.

Week 2: Practice. Set a small daily practice at the same time and place.

Week 3: Mindset. Notice fixed-mindset thoughts and add “yet”. Praise your effort each day.

Week 4: Resilience. Write if-then plans for obstacles, build in rest and practise self-compassion after setbacks.

How self-help methods fit in

Several methods on this site can help you persevere. Visualisation helps you rehearse the steps, not just the goal. Psycho-Cybernetics explores how self-image shapes what you persist with. Mindfulness helps you stay steady with frustration, and learning about flow can help you enjoy the process. EFT tapping can ease the frustration and doubt that make people want to quit. When a particular setback is what makes you want to give up, our guide to overcoming obstacles has practical tools for working through it. You can see every method we cover in the full list above.

Frequently asked questions

What is perseverance?

Continuing to work towards a goal despite difficulty, delay or discouragement.

What is grit?

Angela Duckworth’s term for passion and perseverance for long-term goals. [5]

Can perseverance be learned?

Yes. Growth mindset, deliberate practice, purpose and supportive relationships can all strengthen it. [1]

What is a growth mindset?

Carol Dweck’s term for believing your abilities can develop through effort, good strategies and help from others.

How should I praise children to build perseverance?

Praise effort and strategies rather than intelligence. [7]

How do I keep going when I want to give up?

Reconnect with your purpose, shrink the goal to one small step, rest if you need to and be kind to yourself.

Is it ever OK to quit?

Yes. Changing tactics, or resting, can be wise. Many people stay committed to a bigger goal while changing how they get there.

The best videos on perseverance

Hand-picked and checked one by one: Angela Duckworth, Carol Dweck, Lucy Hone, Kristin Neff and Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child.

Grit

Growth mindset

Resilience

Books on perseverance

Free resources

Experts to follow

Get help

If low mood or exhaustion makes it hard to keep going, your doctor or a counsellor can help.

Find a therapist or counsellor

• US and Canada: Psychology Today (US) and (Canada) directories.
• UK: BACP therapist directory.
• Australia: APS Find a Psychologist, and Relationships Australia for couple and family services.
• Elsewhere, including Europe and India: ask your doctor or local health service for a referral, and check that anyone you see is registered or accredited where you live.

This hub is for information, not a substitute for medical or psychological care.

Sources

1. Yeager et al. (2019), A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement, Nature 573:364-369
2. Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer (1993), The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review 100(3):363-406
3. Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38:69-119
4. Breines & Chen (2012), Self-compassion increases self-improvement motivation, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 38(9):1133-1143
5. Duckworth et al. (2007), Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92(6):1087-1101
6. Duckworth & Quinn (2009), Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S), Journal of Personality Assessment 91(2):166-174
7. Mueller & Dweck (1998), Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75(1):33-52
8. Masten (2001), Ordinary magic: resilience processes in development, American Psychologist 56(3):227-238
9. Neff (2003), Self-compassion: an alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself, Self and Identity 2(2):85-101

Written by Saj Ali. Last updated 31 October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it.