Persist

​
Indecision is a huge factor in stress, worry, fear and doubt.
Friend, good morning.

Persistence is a fine quality. But so is knowing when to quit.
The truth is that most of us are never really sure , are we?

When we're pursuing an elusive end, we tell ourselves to persist and stick at it, that we're almost there. That another step, maybe two, will bring us home and it'll all have been worth it.

Or we may see in our hearts that 'this isn't working', that it's like throwing money at something that is not going to respond. And we quit.

There are questions here which can be useful to ask. The first is to take the nature of the project on which we're working into account.
Is it something dependent on our application?
Or is it something dependent on some outside factor over which we've little or no control?

If it's the former, and we're experiencing no progress, the fault is no one else's but our own. We either need to change our practice, or modify our goal to be more compatible with our life, and present style of life.
But either way, even asking this question has often reinforced the goal in the mind of the questioner, and inspired Herculean effort, or made the goal more realistic in terms of achievement.

When we're dependent on outside factors, we need to be able to influence them to our aims, or continue banging heads on stone walls. 

But there's a third question here. So often, we attribute control or influence to a circumstance that really has none.
An instance of this could be , 'I'll start the diet on Monday. My son is having a party on Saturday, and the grandchildren are coming to the house on Sunday.'
Or 'The holiday season is starting now, I'll begin the course studies in September.'

We all know that there's no good or bad time to start something about which we feel strongly and intend to bring into our lives. Weekend parties and holiday seasons do not deserve the honour of being elements of influence. Not if we're in earnest.

So have a look at your current decision-making. Spend some time considering whether you're genuinely looking at an influence about which you can do nothing, or whether you're elevating an excuse to the level of a reason.

We all tend to do it at times. It's good to be aware of it. Then we can reconsider our decisions and bring a much more favourable influence into our lives.