As I have come to understand it,
intellectual perseverance is a recognition that one must always be cognizant of
the necessity to seek meaning and understanding in the decisions they will make
despite anything that may inhibit their decision-making process. It is a focus on the insights that may be
afforded to one from an analysis of past experiences.
One must utilize their rational
brain when making these choices and persevere through the everyday
irregularities that seem without cause or that would otherwise hamper their own
development. This entails overcoming the
obstacles of irrational thinking. One
must not always expect that others will be as intellectually perseverant as them,
and must watch out from getting caught in such traps as a result.
Intellectual
perseverance also means that a person is willing to wrestle with the tough
decisions. They will confront
hard-choices without clear-cut answers head-on, and this will allow them to analyze outcomes in ways not otherwise possible. They must be prudent in this process and
never allow short-sided decisions to get in the way of long-term goals. Every problem has a solution if one is
willing to contemplate long enough about it.
Already
during my first half of the MSc in Leadership degree, I have faced great
difficulties and frustrations along the way.
It can be quite challenging to balance a more than full-time job with
the requirements and responsibilities of a master’s degree. The degree itself is also quite challenging
at times. It demands a level of
self-introspection that had never been demanded of me prior and seems to grow
trying/redundant at times. But I know
that the repetition of these particular skills and means are simply a manner in
which the program does, in fact, develop my own intellectual perseverance as I
solve problems to seemingly unknown scenarios which I have never faced
before. It has indeed made me a more
reflective leader. I have begun to regularly
analyze my actions within the context of past decisions and their results. No longer do I simply make a quick decision
simply for the sake of getting something done; my choices tend to be
results-oriented.
One of
the other challenges in the degree is that assignments and the process for
accomplishing them are not always clearly laid out. It can also be difficult to find immediate
answers given the distance-learning nature of a virtual environment. It is important for my classmates and me that
we intellectually persevere in considering new options for how to get things
done and not be afraid to proceed with an assignment simply by referring to the
knowledge we have gained from our assigned readings and past coursework. Great attempts and effort rarely go
unrewarded and intellectual perseverance ensures that we are striving to do our
best and make good choices in every regard along the way.
I
believe that all good leaders must be intellectually perseverant in some manner. Leaders often face great impediments to
success which obstruct their paths and prevent immediate solutions. They must use intellectual insight grounded in
self-reflection to overcome these obstacles.
Additionally, they remain rational even in the midst of vast confusion;
often this leads them to be recognized for the great leaders they are
simply due to their level-headedness. In
time, I hope to utilize these very principles of intellectual perseverance to
arise as a good leader. Hopefully this
degree continues to afford me with opportunities to learn how to be more effective
at it. That, dedication, experience, and
a little bit of luck should help get me down the road of where I want to be in
life.
