There are times when life just seems to wear you down.  Your dreams may seem delayed or misplaced.  Have you ever wondered why success or happiness seems to always stay just beyond your reach?

Well, our society is used to instant gratification.  We want instant oatmeal, instant coffee,
quick-drying cement and faster downloads.  The media portrays success in a 60 minute show.   We are duped into believing that we can have it all and have it now.   So we have lost the perspective of time.  The greater the aspiration, the more work it takes to reach it.   

Solomon wrote that the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, but to him who endures to the end.   Endurance is a fleeting character trait that is much harder to find in our fast-paced lives.   Endurance is the ability to stand when your legs are weary.  It is the ability to never give up, though all around you claim that your quest is hopeless.

Whatever you desire, if it is worth having at all, it is worth persevering until you achieve it.  Abraham Lincoln lost every election he ever entered until he won the presidency.  Edison had thousands of failures until he perfected the light bulb.  What many of us need to do is to raise our failure quotient.  If you haven't failed repeatedly at some great quest, then you probably haven't tried enough times.

What we need is a revival of old-fashioned  work and determination.  To change our lives and change our world will take dedicated, patient and tireless endurance.  How fast you make your journey is not half as important as finally arriving at your destination.  It's not about speed, it's about grit.