Friday, November 29, 2024

Persistence vs. Stubbornness

If you're open to change, focused on the end goal, and would like to try new approaches, you're likely being persistent. 

Persistence is motivated by faith and focused on possibilities and solutions. It stems from a growth mindset. Stubbornness is motivated by fear or problem. It stems from a fixed mindset. Here are the key differences between persistence and stubbornness:

Flexibility and openness: Persistence is open to wisdom, feedback, and course correction. It's willing to adapt methods to achieve goals. Stubbornness is closed off to suggestions and new ideas. It insists on doing things a certain way. Focus: Persistence focuses on the end goal or result. Stubbornness focuses on specific methods or being right.

Approach to challenges: Persistence looks for solutions and alternatives when faced with obstacles. Stubbornness makes excuses or refuses to change when faced with challenges.

Decision-making: Persistence uses good judgment and is willing to change lower-level decisions to achieve higher-level goals. Stubbornness rigidly sticks to decisions at all levels, even when they're not working.

Underlying qualities: Persistence involves energy, imagination, resilience, good judgment, and goal focus. Stubbornness is simpler, often just involving refusal to change.

Response to setbacks: Persistence bounces back from setbacks but learns from them. Stubbornness ignores setbacks and refuses to learn or adapt.

Rationality: Persistence is rational, focusing on expected value and optimizing paths to goals. Stubbornness can be irrational, sticking to ideas despite evidence they're not working. In essence, persistence is a positive trait that involves the determined but flexible pursuit of goals, while stubbornness is a negative trait that involves rigid adherence to ideas or methods regardless of their effectiveness.

Focus: Persistence focuses on the end goal or result. Stubbornness focuses on specific methods or being right.

Approach to challenges: Persistence looks for solutions and alternatives when faced with obstacles. Stubbornness makes excuses or refuses to change when faced with challenges.

Learning and agility: Persistence involves learning from failures and setbacks, and adjusting accordingly. Stubbornness ignores evidence that something isn't working and refuses to change course.

Curiosity and openness: Persistence involves listening with curiosity and being open to feedback. Stubbornness resists new information or perspectives.

Decision-making: Persistence uses good judgment and is willing to change lower-level decisions to achieve higher-level goals. Stubbornness rigidly sticks to decisions at all levels, even when they're not working.

Energy and imagination: Persistence involves actively trying new approaches and thinking creatively. Stubbornness often involves passive resistance rather than active problem-solving. To determine if you're being persistent or stubborn, reflect on your motivations, your openness to feedback and new ideas, your focus (on the goal vs. the method), and your willingness to learn and adapt. 

If you're open to change, focused on the end goal, and willing to try new approaches, you're likely being persistent. If you're rigidly attached to your initial ideas and resistant to change despite evidence it's not working, you may be veering into stubbornness.

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