Persevere

Today is the beginning of the second decade of Monday Muse. It started on the first Monday of 2004, in response to the request from the then National President of JCI India, Rajesh Chandak. The Monday morning email was based on my speeches delivered on his theme ‘Touch to transform’. However by March 2005, I succumbed to the pressure of Monday mornings. I quit.

Many readers called or messaged me to continue. I was pleasantly surprised to note that the very people, I had huge respect for, eagerly waited for my mail. Within four weeks I was back with a new name: Monday Muse! From rewritten speeches that I had delivered, it transformed into fresh writing. While my speeches were based on reading, now my writing was based on learning. Most importantly it was based on the latest musings on Monday morning.

Save for a few Mondays, when I was out of internet connectivity, it was shared on email, blogs and other e-groups. On days, when the muse seemed lost, earlier musings would be rewritten in fresh context. The writing based on learning was now moving to loftier level of thinking. It was triggering positive transformations in my various roles as trainer, orator, counsellor and analyst. Indeed the biggest impact of Monday Muse was on yours truly.

Surely none of this would have been possible, if I had not persevered. While it is good to start things, we need to be better at persevering with the initiative. So often, so many of us give up on a good thing, after getting into the habit of doing it regularly. It may be the morning exercise or the learning of a new skill or the pursuit of a hobby or the nurturing of a relationship.

It is said so well that ‘the drop hollows the stone, not through strength but by persistence’. Giving up immediately when you start is bad, but giving up after getting in the groove is surely a tragedy. To persevere we need to commit ourselves to not giving up. It is about making the choice of proactive living in the present time and space. My achievement is not in writing Monday Muse over ten years, it lies in the fact that I have chosen to persevere.

Monday Muse sustains on a choice to persevere...
no other way to be better at a cause that is dear!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India