The Importance of Being Tenacious

Being tenacious is a quality I admire not only in myself,  but one that I feel is behind most accomplishments that I read or hear about.  Tenacity is also a virtue that I feel worthy enough to pass on to my children, my husband, and anyone who will listen to me. Tenacity is why movies like “Erin Brockovich” and “The Shawshank Redemption” resonate so much with me.  Being tenacious, or, as defined by the dictionary,  not readily relinquishing a position, principle, or course of action; determined – yields tremendous results.  It is a way to achieve success on any playing field.  My favorite definition of tenacity is from “The Roman Virtues”

Tenacity is having the strength of mind to stick to one’s purpose.  Tenacity is the quality that drives you to follow through on your own aims and be slow or unwilling to give up on them.

Results happen when you are tenacious.  Erin Brockovich, who gets hired at a law firm as an assistant and isn’t even a lawyer, manages to win a court case that awarded the largest amount of dollars in a class action suit to date.  How?  By being tenacious.  By digging deep, strategizing and working the problem.   Tim Robbins character in “The Shawshank Redemption”  commits to pounding away, day after day, piece after piece, at the wall in his prison cell until he makes a hole big enough that he can crawl out of.

I was recently asked to be on a panel on social media for a marketing organization I am a member of because I am considered an “expert” in my field.  The panel went well, and at the end I addressed this “me being an expert” idea. Do I feel like an expert?  Not really, but I know why it is perceived in the industry that I am viewed as an expert.  It is that I am tenacious.  I stick with it.  I dedicated myself to social media and being a good communicator so much so that it ended up getting noticed.   The learning curve is constant and one that I stay on top of, but by simply dedicating myself to this one part of my job – I became successful at it.

Don’t confuse being tenacious with persistence however,  two words many mistakenly believe to be synonymous.  Both tenacious and persistent persons possess a will that refuses to submit but it is the manner in which they refuse that is different, with one being decidedly more effective at achieving success.

A persistent person will try something again and again in the hopes that it will eventually work. Regardless of how flawed the method, they are content to think that if they continue to try, sooner or later things will pay off.

Tenacity on the other hand is the mark of the strategic thinker. A tenacious person is never content with their methodology. They possess the same indomitable will as their persistent counterpart, but choose to utilize the information and data from their attempts for further improvements.  If you know where you want to go, being tenacious will help you get there.   Navigate the speed bumps along the way,  learn from them, and be flexible enough to know when to bend to make the end game work.

Pick one thing to focus on and stick with it – You Can Do It!