Social Workers and Persistence
Posted by Rob Plotkin on Mon, Jun 01, 2009
As the news bombardiers dropped their negative reports on us over the last few weeks, I started to think about social workers and their level of persistence. In my job, I have to be persistent to keep things moving forward. There are a lot of negatives out there, and it’s important to remain focused. I remembered a quote that I had read somewhere. It goes something like this and is by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place that divine providence has found for you…Nothing at last is sacred but the integrity of your own mind. What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think.”
I read this to mean that if someone tells you that you can’t do something, that you should bow your head and plow forward.
Abraham Lincoln was a failure in many things he tried. He lost 8 elections and failed in business at least twice. Yet he was elected President, and is arguably one of our best.
Babe Ruth was famous for holding the record for most home runs. He also held the record for most strike outs.
Persistence is the seed of success.
A good friend and colleague whom I followed into social work is my model for persistence, as well. She’s a successful therapist who has not had an easy life. Yet, at the age of 70, she went back to school to get her real estate license because she needed more income. She became an agent and had a successful career selling houses down the shore until at age 75 she decided to re-build her private practice. She did this in the face of great odds and head winds.
My favorite person who exemplified perseverance was Winston Churchill. He, like Lincoln, suffered a myriad of political defeats. In 1941, in the face of a larger German army, whose bombardiers had already devastated his county, he rallied the spirit of his nation to oppose the onslaught with everything they had. Years later, he was invited to speak at Oxford University. After the introduction, he stood before the lectern, grasping it tightly and said, “Never never, never give up.” The he turned around and went back to his seat.
Persistence...
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