To achieve our goals, we need to inject perseverance into our attitude. 

The main goal I’ve had all the way along my journey is to get better. Through my ups and downs, this has never wavered. Getting better isn’t like getting over a cold because I know that I’ll never get back to 100%. Getting better for me means precisely that - GETTING BETTER! Taking one more step each day so that it’s better than the last. Getting better meant, for me, getting over each challenge I’m faced with.

This is how we achieve our goals, by taking small baby steps towards them.

My journey has been tough, but it started the moment I came out of a coma. Back then I was encouraged to put in a little bit of effort, so that’s what I did. I put in a little bit of effort every single day. I used perseverance as a tool to help me succeed.

Throughout my time in rehab, perseverance was relatively easy because the place ran like clockwork. A typical day as an inpatient at Epworth went like this 

7:50 am – I would wake with a knock on the door for my 30-odd pills of medication, a jab in the guts with a small needle plus breakfast to wash them down.

9:00 am – I would go upstairs for my first therapy session, Speech Pathology, for an hour. This was where I would practice talking and thinking.

10:00 am – An hour of Occupational Therapy had me practising those daily activities that I would eventually get back to using in my day-to-day life. Things like learning how to cook again, making shopping lists, catching public transport, reading instructions, cooking for myself, etc.

11:00 am – I went off to my first physical exercise for the day with an hour of Physiotherapy. 

12:00 pm –I would then have an hour of Exercise Physiology at 12:00 called running group where we’d have a group therapy session that was all about lower limb work. This helped me to getmy pegs working again.

1:00 pm – I went back to my room for an hour for lunch and sometimes a quick snooze. 

2:00 pm – My final session for the day, another hour of Physiotherapy.

My day of rehab would then finish at 3:00 pm every single day.

This was my routine 5 days a week for 6 months. I was doing 25 hours of rehab per week for 6 months. This was a challenge because I wasn’t doing this with a healthy, fit, buff body. I was doing it with a damaged one. An INJURED one. 

Some may think this seems like a long time, but it was just the beginning of what was to come. Once I became an outpatient that’s when the games began because the workload was totally on my two shoulders. I no longer had my therapists there 5 hours a day kicking my ass, so I really had to be kicking my own. This meant I needed to start taking the responsibility into my own hands and I had to choose to take my recovery seriously.

My days as an outpatient also became all about getting better. Every day I would get up early and do an hour of exercise before I started the day. I was still going to rehab 3 times a week, but I also managed to get down to the local gym 4-5 times a week to do extra workouts. On top of that, I was also down at the park three times a week practising my running drills. I was on a mission and that mission was to get better. This was the perseverance I needed to get my life back to the level where I wanted it to be.

These days I still do therapy when I have an issue with my body. Whether that’s my arm, shoulder, legs, or any other part of my body. I’m now down at the gym only 3 mornings a week, and out running once a week (in a perfect week).

The journey that I have been on has taught me the power of perseverance and at many times this perseverance has turned into pure determination. Don’t look at me and think that I’m always this motivated because trust me, I’m still human. I have my ups and downs just like everyone else, but perseverance helps me stick to my goal of getting better, even on my down days. 

Perseverance is what I turn to whenever I’m going through a rough patch. Motivation comes in peaks and valleys, and when it is high, there’s no need to put in extra effort because you’re already kicking goals. But it’s when your motivation levels are low that is when you need perseverance the most. One trick I use, to kick my ass when I’m feeling unmotivated, is to take the first step. When the alarm goes off to get up, I get up. Once I’m up it’s easier to find the motivation to get dressed. Once I’m dressed in my workout clothes, it’s easy to put my shoes on. By this stage, it’s very easy to get in the car and go. Once I’m at the gym or out running, I don’t stop. If I was to think about working out, just after I hit the snooze button, it would be enough to make me turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. Perseverance is one small baby step at a time.

What happens when things are rough for you? Do you persevere in the things you do and the goals you’re trying to achieve?