Persistence, Dedication, Endurance

 "Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance."
- James Baldwin

"You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny."
-   Upanishads, 800 BCE

Willpower, Resolve, Determination
Anthology by Mike Garofalo

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
-  Calvin Coolidge

Top 10 Mistakes in Behavior Change
 

1.  "Relying on willpower for long-term change
2.  Attempting big leaps instead of baby steps
3.  Ignoring how environment shapes behavior
4.  Trying to stop old behaviors instead of creating new ones
5.  Blaming failures on lack of motivation

6.  Underestimating the power of triggers (cues) 

7.  Believing that information leads to action 
8.  Focusing on abstract goals instead of concrete behaviors

9.  Seeking to change a behavior forever, not for a short time
10. Assuming that behavior change is difficult.”
-  Stanford University, Persuasive Tech Lab

Actions and Deeds

"The shortest answer is doing."
-  George Herbert

"No one is wise by birth.  Wisdom results from one's own efforts."
-  Krishnamacharya    

"Will is character in action."
-  William McDougall 

"Willpower is the art of replacing one habit for another."
-  Michael Garofalo  

"It is really vain to express the nature of something.  We notice effects, and a complete account of these effects would perhaps comprise the nature of this thing.  We attempt in vain to describe the character of a man; but a description of his actions and his deeds will create for us a picture of his character."
-  Goethe, The Theory of Colors

Will Power: Quotes, Sayings

Virtue Ethics

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones.  By James Clear.  Avery, 2018, 320 pages.  A excellent best seller. 
Clear writing style, positive, informative, practical, and inspiring. VSCL. 

Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About it Now.  By Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen.  25th Anniversary Edition.  De Capo Lifelong, 2008, index, 322 pages.  VSCL. 

Great Determination and Great Effort

Repost from 2015:

My yoga classes have their greatest attendance in January and February of each year.  Students join the gym because of a New Year's Resolution to improve their health and fitness, loose weight, or share an activity with a friend or loved one.

Keeping up efforts to accomplish a resolution, goal, objective, or intention requires great effort and great determination.  

In China, there is a legend about a carp or salmon struggling upstream against many obstacles to bring a new generation into being.  Accomplishing the tasks toward a goal is referred to as passing through the Dragon's Gate.  Scholars who have successfully completed all the requirements of a university curriculum, passed all the tests, are said to have graduated and passed through the Dragon's Gate and thus have transformed themselves into something new and improved. 

May each of you have great determination and exert great effort to accomplish your chosen goals and objectives in 2015.  

Here is a version of the legendary story of the Redfin Carp passing through the Dragon's Gate, as told by the Japanese Zen Master, Haikuin Ekaku:

"Redfin Carp pledged a solemn vow.  "I shall swim beyond the Dragon Gates.  I shall brave the perilous bolts of fire and lightening.  I shall transcend the estate of ordinary fish and achieve a place among the order of sacred dragons.  I shall rid myself forever of the terrible suffering to which my race is heir, expunge every trace of our shame and humiliation."    
Waiting until the third day of the third month, when the peach blossoms are in flower and the river is full, he made his way to the entrance of the Yü Barrier.  Then, with a flick of his tail, Redfin Carp swam forth.

You men have never laid eyes on the awesome torrent of water that rolls through the Dragon Gates.  It falls all the way from the summits of the far-off Kunlun Range with tremendous force.  There are wild, thousand foot waves that rush down through gorges towering to dizzying heights on either side, carrying away whole hillsides as they go.  Angry bolts of thunder beat down with a deafening roar.  Moaning whirlwinds whip up poisonous mists and funnels of noisome vapor spitting flashing forks of lightening.  The mountain spirits are stunned into senselessness; the river spirits turn limp with fright.  Just a drop of this water will shatter the carapace of the giant tortoise, it will break the bones of the giant whale.

It was into this maelstrom that Redfin Cary, his splendid golden-red scales girded to the full, his steely teeth thrumming like drums, mad a direct all-out assault.  Ah! Golden Carp!  Golden Carp!  You might have led an ordinary life out in the boundless ocean.  It teems with lesser fish.  You would not have gone hungry.  Then why?  What made you embark on this wild and bitter struggle:  What was waiting for you up beyond the Barrier?
Suddenly, after being seared by cliff-shattering bolts of lightning, after being battered by heaven scorching blast of thunder-fire, his scaly armor burnt from from head to tail, his fins singed through, Redfin Carp perished into the Great Death and rose again as a divine dragon─ a supreme lord of the waters.  Now, with the thunder god at his head and a fire god at his rear, flanked right and left with the gods of rain and wind, he moves abroad with the clouds in one hand and mists in the other, bringing new life to the tender young shoots withering in the long parched desert lands, keepin the true Dharma safe amid the defilements of the degenerate world.

Had he been content to pass his life like a lame turtle or blind tortoise, feeding on winkles and tiny shrimps, not even all the effort Vasuki, Manasvi, and the other Dragon Kings might muster on his behalf could have done him any good.  He could never have achieved the great success that he did."

-   Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769), Japanese Zen Master and artist, "The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin," translated by Norman Waddell, 1994, p. 64




Willpower

Leaping Over the Dragons Gate

Taoism