‘THE worst thing that can happen to you may be the best thing that can happen to you as long as you do not let it get the best from you’ —Napoleon Hill.
To persevere is to persist with a positive mind power in whatever you are doing and under whatever circumstances with faith until you achieve your intended goal in your life.
For example, the US professional golfer, Tiger Woods spent most of the time from August 1999, to September 2004, as the World number one in golf.
Between December 2009 and early April 2010, Tiger Woods took absence from playing golf to attend to his personal challenges.
At the end of 2009, several companies cancelled their endorsement deals with Tiger Woods because of his personal challenges which he was experiencing in his life.
Tiger Woods returned with great perseverance to play golf competition in April 2010.
His ranking dropped drastically from being number one to being as low as number fifty-eight in November 2011.
Just imagine, Tiger Woods dropped fifty-seven levels from being number One to being number fifty-eight. Remarkably and to the surprise of many of his critics, just after a little more than a year in 2013,
Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitation for the eighth time and this win made him become number one once again.  That is truly amazing!
To commemorate this remarkable achievement, after having dropped to number fifty-eight, Nike Company which had earlier withdrawn its endorsement for Tiger Woods quickly launched an advertisement with the tagline ‘Winning Takes Care of Everything’!
The three-time World heavyweight boxing champion and icon Muhammad Ali says ‘I have learned that sometimes you have to lose in order to be great’. With perseverance, a positive mind power and faith, Muhammad Ali beat most fighters who had beaten him before. For instance, Joe
Frazier beat Ali in 1971 and Ali came back to beat Frazier twice in 1974 and 1975.
Ken Norton beat Ali in March 1973 and Ali came back to beat Norton twice in September 1973 and in 1976; and Leon Spinks beat
Ali in February 1978 and Ali came back seven months later to beat Spinks in September 1978. Ali’s superb self-confidence and perseverance come from what his father was constantly telling him as a child, ‘Always confront the things you fear’ and ‘be the best at whatever you do’.
About 55 B.C., the Roman military General and statesman, Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) and his soldiers went from Italy to invade Britain. Soon after they crossed the English Channel and entered Britain, Caesar ordered to burn the ships which had brought them to Britain. When his soldiers saw their ships up in flames they were shocked and they asked their general why he had done that. Caesar told them that: ‘You see the boats go up in smoke. That means we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice. We win or perish’. They persisted, persevered, fought hard and won!  Hence the saying ‘Burning Bridges’ to cut all sources of retreat. It suggests that when people know that their success depends on being united in their purpose they can overcome any challenge and succeed. The author of the classic book of all time ‘Think and Grow Rich’ Napoleon Hill says, ‘Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.
Only by doing so can one is sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success’.
After the news of Caesar’s victory reached home in Italy, some of the Roman leaders became jealous of Caesar and persuaded the Senate or Cabinet to recall him to Rome.
When Caesar was about to enter Rome on his way back, he had to cross a small boundary river called Rubicon.
In the Roman law, to cross a boundary with soldiers into Rome meant disobedience to the Senate and also a Declaration of War on Rome.
After some hesitation, Caesar plunged his horse into the shallow water of the Rubicon River, exclaiming in Latin, ‘Alea-iacta-est’ to mean, ‘The Die is cast!’  Hence today, the expression, ‘Crossing the Rubicon’.
It means to reach a point of going forward only—which in a negative vocabulary is called ‘Reaching a Point of No Return’!
After Caesar returned to Rome, war broke out which lasted for five years.  Caesar won the war through his perseverance and he had all the power in Rome. Later, Caesar went to Egypt and got involved in a relationship with the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.
Besides being remembered by his supreme perseverance, Julius Caesar is also remembered by the Roman or Julian calendar which is still in use today. When he returned to Rome from Egypt he introduced the Egyptian Calendar into Rome after making some changes to it.
In the Egyptian Calendar, all the months had thirty days with five extra days at the end of the year.
In rearranging the Egyptian calendar, Caesar decided to have thirty-one days in every other month. Since there were only enough days in the year to have five months with thirty-one days and Caesar took a day from February, the last month in the Roman year and left it with twenty-nine days, the only short month of the year.
The Roman year began in March. Later, when Augustus was Emperor of Rome the number of days in August were changed to give Emperor Augustus also thirty-one days as they were for July, named for Julius. So a day was taken again from February, now leaving it with twenty-eight days to make August have thirty-one days like July. This change made three months in succession with thirty-one days. So September was given thirty days and the following months were rearranged as they appear in the Calendar today. Caesar Augustus, earlier known as Octavius was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, who was the emperor of the Roman Empire at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.
The month of January was named for the Roman god Janus; February was named from the Roman name for Feast; March was named from Mars the Roman god of war; April was named from a Latin name ‘to open’ (flowers and plants);  May was named from Maia, a Roman goddess;  June was named from Juno, wife of Jupiter, the chief Roman god.
July was named in honour of Julius Caesar; August was named in honour of Emperor Caesar Augustus; September was named from the Latin word for seven; October was named from the Latin word for eight; November was named from the Latin word for nine; and December was named from the Latin word for ten. The
Roman calendar started in March and had ten months.
Easter is a period of emulating and learning from the perseverance of Jesus during the process of His Crucifixion. Jesus’ perseverance is the ‘Height of Perseverance’ because Jesus persisted and persevered through His challenges until He overcame all of them and succeeded so that you too with faith can do the same and succeed like Him.
Luke 22:41-44 says, ‘Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, “Father,” he said, “If you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however but your will be done”. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him…he prayed even more fervently, his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground’.
Whatever challenge that you may be facing in your life today and right now, face it head-on and accept it with your positive mind power.
Ask God with faith to send you too an angel to come and strengthen you so that you can persist, persevere, overcome it and succeed in your life.
Remember that the greatest achievement in life is to rise up when you fall down and that the difference between a problem and a challenge is that a problem is negative and its only purpose is to weaken you while a challenge is positive and its only purpose is to strengthen you.
Turn your current problem into a challenge and persevere with your positive mind power until you overcome it and succeed in your personal life.
I wish you a very Happy Easter!
The author is a motivational mentor and consultant in Positive MindSet Change.
Email: positivemindpower
1511@yahoo.com