Persistence and Goal Achievement: A Lesson From Maggie

Do you know who Maggie is?

If not, look to your left at the photo album labeled My Canine Assistant. She's my dog :)

Besides being very cute, she continuously teaches me lessons or reminds me of lessons just when I need to be reminded.

The lesson of the day? Persistence.

I left a bowl from lunch on the coffee table and Maggie tried about 15 different ways to get to the bowl and lick it. I kept blocking her but she didn't stop. She went under the table, over it, around it one way, around it the other way.

As much as I know how important it is to persistent in achieving my key goals, I find myself getting impatient and frustrated at times as things aren't going along as quickly, smoothly, or fantastically as I'd like.

But persistence isn't the only lesson from Maggie. After not being able to lick the bowl (because I put it in the sink), she moved along and curled up on her bed to happily take a nap.

Sometimes we don't achieve our goal, but we must bounce back from failure. We can't let the failure stop us from pursuing and enjoying other important things. Sometimes the best thing to do is move on. We can always return to something later once we've built up more skills or re-evaluated our strategy.

Undoubtedly you already know these things. But the reminder was really helpful to me today.

I thought it might help you too.

Until next time...

Larina Kase

Comments

[Erin Blaskie]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful story about your dog! My black lab, Molly, is also very persistent and I do believe there are plenty of great lessons to be taken from our canine friends. It's amazing to watch them and to learn from them. I hope you'll write more about your dog in the future!