Persistence: Definition, Benefits, & Examples

Persistence is action – it is the behaviors by which we keep moving towards a goal, even through obstacles (Howard & Crayne, 2019). This behavioral pattern can be broken down into two different forms: continuous persistence and episodic persistence (Brandstatter & Bernecker, 2022). Continuous persistence is the ability to keep focused on a goal without taking a break, even as challenges, roadblocks, and tempting alternative activities come our way. Episodic persistence is the act of returning to pursuing a goal after time away from this objective.
 
To meet many objectives, we need both continuous and episodic persistence (Brandstatter & Bernecker, 2022). As a couple therapist, the building of a meaningful relationship naturally comes to my mind as an example. Relationships require us to have continuous persistence in that we cannot simply walk away when difficult topics are raised or conflict arises – we have to push through and stay connected to emerge stronger on the other side of the issue. At the same time, we cannot be with our partners all the time, so we must demonstrate episodic persistence to continue returning to our goal of building connection with that person. We could perhaps think of continuous persistence in isolation as the intensity with which a person pursues a one-night stand and episodic persistence in isolation as the act of returning to a therapy couch week after week.

Are Some People More Persistent Than Others?
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All that said, it can also be said that some people are more persistent than others – they have the characteristic of tending to be persistent more often. Two researchers developed a scale to measure the tendency to be persistent, and they found three aspects of being a persistent person: being persistent despite difficulties, being persistent despite fear, and being inappropriately persistent – as in, continuing to work toward goals that are impractical, unhealthy, or highly unlikely to be achieved (Howard & Crayne, 2019). It seems that the first two aspects of persistence are associated with better psychological well-being, while the third is (perhaps unsurprisingly) not.

​Can You Be Too Persistent?

I think these are useful distinctions. I used to race marathons, and I could distinguish between the need to push through the pain and the fear that I would not be able to succeed. I knew pain was inevitable in a long race, but if I had trained adequately, I did not have to be as afraid. When I started trying ultramarathons, I began to hear stories about people who had pushed themselves too far—their persistence had led them to get injured when they took their bodies past their limits.

Being able to persist – and stop persisting when needed – are critical aspects of our abilities to regulate ourselves and achieve both our personal goals and maintain our well-being (Brandstatter & Bernecker, 2022). Without persistence, we simply would not grow or learn much. Think about your experiences learning math as a child and teenager: without continuous persistence, such as staying focused on a new kind of equation for a whole class period, you likely would not have come to understand conceptually the math skills you were learning. Without episodic persistence – returning to the skills again and again, on homework assignments and tests – you would not have solidified those skills as a long-term asset.
 
In this way, persistence in learning things allows us to develop the key competencies we need as independent adults. In fact, without persistence, we would surely not get very far in life, which is why most species seem to have evolved an innate ability to persist at certain difficult developmental tasks (Lucca & Sommerville, 2018). It takes an endless series of trial and error efforts to learn how to walk, speak, tie one’s shoes, and so on.
 
Finally, persistence is important because it makes us feel good to work hard toward and achieve goals (Disaboto et al., 2019). Some psychologists even go so far as to claim that it is this sense of satisfaction that serves as the primary drive to persist (Mees & Schmitt, 2008).

About a month ago, my housing co-op gained a new housemate, who brought along their dog. This dog, bless his heart, cannot abide by the continuous verbal reminders he gets to stay out of the kitchen. He is too persistent in pursuing his goals of being near people and food to stay out of the kitchen for long.

Really, I see examples of persistence all around me. It is in the couples whom I counsel through their relationship stressors, my friends who show up early each morning at the climbing gym, and my housemates as we gather for house meetings each Monday night to discuss the needs of our community. Big, meaningful goals underlie these persistent behaviors – goals of personal growth, intimacy, and harmony.​

Persistence definitely pays off! For example, it is a critical aspect of creativity, which can be broken down into a combination of being flexible and being persistent (Nijstad et al., 2010). We need persistence to stick with our creative ideas and explore them enough that they can be fully realized.
 
There is also a lot of data showing that persistence pays off in terms of academic and professional achievements. For example, in a study conducted in Sweden, how persistently people worked at tasks when they were 13 years old predicted their grades at age 16, how educated they were as adults, and how well-paying and highly regarded their jobs were as adults (Andersson & Bergman, 2011). This led the authors of the study to conclude that the overall intelligence of these individuals, while influential in their success, was also dependent on how persistent they were as individuals.
 
Even seeing somebody else who embodies persistence can help us be more persistent. In one study, after people were asked to engage in a task that required lots of self-control, they were able to persist longer when they were exposed to an image of a person they considered to be very persistent (Martijn et al., 2007).
 
Persistence also means being willing to risk additional effort and loss of time and energy to reach goals (Lucas et al., 2015). In this sense, people who are more persistent may suffer a loss of resources as they refuse to give up on a task; this makes them more likely to achieve what other people do not, but also more likely to face the consequences of failing where a less persistent person would have given up sooner.​

Psychologists have offered many potential explanatory theories for the presence of persistence in our lives. One such theory is self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2019), which states that people will naturally work to satisfy their basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. In this sense, goals that satisfy these needs are naturally rewarding, so we will persist in trying to reach these goals, whereas goals that do not satisfy these needs will be pursued with less persistence.

Another theory, goal setting theory, tells us that we demonstrate persistence around specific and challenging (but not too challenging) goals (Locke & Latham, 1990). From this perspective, it is the nature of the goal itself that motivates us to be persistent. A third theory states that we will persist towards a goal until the costs associated with that pursuit start to outweigh the importance or desirability of the goal (Brehm & Self, 1989). Finally, still other psychologists have looked at individual differences in persistence rather than contextual factors. Perhaps the most famous contemporary example of this is the psychological concept of grit, in which Angela Duckworth characterized persistence as a key aspect of being a generally gritty, “stick-to-it” kind of person (Duckworth et al., 2007).

Resilience is the ability to cope effectively with stress and mental health challenges (Connor & Davidson, 2003). In this sense, it overlaps a lot with persistence, because to act in a persistent manner, one must deal with setbacks and obstacles from both outside and within themselves (Benard, 1991).

Here are some quotes on persistence that may help you tap into your own persistent self.
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• “You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” – Octavia Butler
• “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
• “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” – Calvin Coolidge
• “The art of love is largely the art of persistence.” – Albert Ellis
• “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
• “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley
• “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost

Being persistent is a highly desirable personality trait – persistence is how meaningful and difficult things get done. At the same time, I think we should consider individual persistence as one contextual factor in people’s success. For example, research suggests that there are costs for persistent people who face the challenges of racism and being born into disadvantaged settings – though their persistent behaviors can bring them success, it often comes at a cost to their physical health (Brody et al., 2020). In other words, with persistence, we can overcome many challenges, but we should not subscribe to the idea that persistence is all that is needed.
 
That said, I hope you now understand a little more about where persistence might come from in your life. If you would like to know some more about how to remain persistent when you are struggling to stay motivated, I recommend watching this video:​

• Andersson, H., & Bergman, L. R. (2011). The role of task persistence in young adolescence for successful educational and occupational attainment in middle adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 47(4), 950–960.
• Benard, B. (1991). Fostering resiliency in kids: protective factors in the family, school and community. Western Regional center for Drug Free Schools and Communities, Far West Laboratory.
• Brandstätter, V., & Bernecker, K. (2022). Persistence and disengagement in personal goal pursuit. Annual Review of Psychology, 73, 271-299.
• Brehm, J. W., & Self, E. A. (1989). The intensity of motivation. Annual Review of Psychology, 40(1), 109-131.
• Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2020). Persistence of skin-deep resilience in African American adults. Health Psychology, 39(10), 921-926.
• Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18(2), 76–82.
• Disabato, D. J., Goodman, F. R., & Kashdan, T. B. (2019). Is grit relevant to well‐being and strengths? Evidence across the globe for separating perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Journal of Personality, 87(2), 194-211.
• Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101.
• Gucciardi, D. F., Peeling, P., Ducker, K. J., & Dawson, B. (2016). When the going gets tough: Mental toughness and its relationship with behavioural perseverance. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19(1), 81-86.
• Howard, M. C., & Crayne, M. P. (2019). Persistence: Defining the multidimensional construct and creating a measure. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 77-89.
• Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1990). A theory of goal setting & task performance. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Lucas, G. M., Gratch, J., Cheng, L., & Marsella, S. (2015). When the going gets tough: Grit predicts costly perseverance. Journal of Research in Personality, 59, 15-22.
• Lucca, K., & Sommerville, J. A. (2018). The little engine that can: Infants’ persistence matters. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(11), 965-968.
• Martijn, C., Alberts, H. J., Merckelbach, H., Havermans, R., Huijts, A., & De Vries, N. K. (2007). Overcoming ego depletion: the influence of exemplar priming on self‐control performance. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(2), 231-238.
• Mees, U., & Schmitt, A. (2008). Goals of action and emotional reasons for action. A modern version of the theory of ultimate psychological hedonism. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38(2), 157-178.
• Nijstad, B. A., De Dreu, C. K., Rietzschel, E. F., & Baas, M. (2010). The dual pathway to creativity model: Creative ideation as a function of flexibility and persistence. European Review of Social Psychology, 21(1), 34-77.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2019). Brick by brick: The origins, development, and future of self-determination theory. In Advances in motivation science (Vol. 6, pp. 111-156). Elsevier.