Are you stubborn? I am. I believe I have always been stubborn. I used to think it was a character flaw, but now I’m not so sure.

It was my stubbornness that pushed me through my frustration when I was formatting my book for Kindle and couldn’t get the clickable Table of Contents to work. I could have given up. I should have given up after working on it for an entire day. But when my energy was nearly completely extinguished, I accessed my stubbornness and found a way to accomplish the task.

My stubbornness was the reason I did not succumb to my despair when my son Alex died. It would have been so easy to give up but I refused to let my grief destroy me and so I found a way to go on.

Stubbornness hasn’t always been my friend, though. There were times when I held on for too long to something when I should have let it go. You’ve been there, right, tying knot after knot at the end of your rope before you realize you need to let go of the rope.

How do we know when to tie another knot and when to let go? Stubbornness won’t help us answer this question, but he will go along with whatever we decide to do. Stubbornness waits patiently on the sidelines in case he should be called into the game.

It’s good that he’s there, most of the time anyway. Stubbornness is a resource we can call on when we need help. Sometimes he is the difference between winning and losing.

“Stubbornness” is another word for “willpower”.

Are you stubborn?

Photo Credit: Meg