Quotes About Persistence

Dana Stabenow

He told me patience was the most important thing when you wanted something. He told me not to rush, that rushing just got you nowhere faster.

He strode right up to the door of her cabin, seized the latch, and yanked. Locked. "Open the door, Maeve." "Rot in hell, you wretch!" "Open the damned door, Maeve." "I said, go to—" He raised his foot, drew back, and with all his strength, kicked the latch. Once, twice—and then the door crashed open under the force of his blows and he was in the cabin and striding angrily across the tiny space.

Really, Doctor, why do they insist upon giving us such a devil of a time?

It would be many years before I began to understand that all of life is practice: writing, driving, hiking, brushing teeth, packing lunch boxes, making beds, cooking dinner, making love, walking dogs, even sleeping. We are always practicing. Only practicing.

Writing well involves walking the path of most resistance. Sitting still, being patient, allowing the lunatic dream to take shape on the page, then the shaping, the pencil on the page, breathing, slowing down, being willing–no, more than willing, being wide open–to press the bruise until it blossoms.

Think of a ballet dancer at the barre. Plie, eleve, battement tendu. She is practicing, because she knows that there is no difference between practice and art. The practice is the art.

We've been doing many of these (Covid safe) things for months. But as we seek to reach – and then maintain – COVID Normal, they'll still be as important as ever.

You never have the wind with you — either it is against you or you're having a good day.

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks." -

Make big plans aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.

Even the most creative skills—especially the most creative skills—require long periods of clumsiness.

to get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill.

Practice on the days that you eat.

After all, you aren't built to be transformed in a single day. You are built to improve little by little, connection by connection, rep by rep. As Wooden also said, "Don't look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts.

The staggering babies embody the deepest truth about deep practice: to get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill.

GIVE A NEW SKILL A MINIMUM OF EIGHT WEEKS

If you have early success, do your best to ignore the praise and keep pushing yourself to the edges of your ability, where improvement happens. If you don't have early success, don't quit. Instead, treat your early efforts as experiments, not as verdicts. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

The truth is, when you are starting out, you do not "play" tennis; you struggle and fight and pay attention and slowly get better. The truth is, we learn in staggering-baby steps. Effort-based language works because it speaks directly to the core of the learning experience, and when it comes to ignition, there's nothing more powerful.

Why is targeted, mistake-focused practice so effective? A: Because the best way to build a good circuit is to fire it, attend to mistakes, then fire it again, over and over. Struggle is not an option: it's a biological requirement.

is for amateurs.

What is one thing that I currently do that you'd like me to continue to do? What is one thing that I don't currently do frequently enough that you think I should do more often? • What can I do to make you more effective?

We think of effortless performance as desirable, but it's really a terrible way to learn," said Robert Bjork

Q: Why is targeted, mistake-focused practice so effective? A: Because the best way to build a good circuit is to fire it, attend to mistakes, then fire it again, over and over. Struggle is