Keep Moving Forward

Mindful Minutes: A Marketer’s Journey Through Business by Sonya Ruff Jarvis NOW available on AMAZON.

Mindful Minutes: A Marketer’s Journey Through Business by Sonya Ruff Jarvis NOW available on AMAZON.

Perseverance is defined by Webster as persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.  To be persistent is to be tenacious, determined, resolved to have the emotional grit to stay the course no matter the difficulty, the set-back, the disappointment. 

How many of us have that type of fight?  Better yet, at what point does the fight not seem worth it anymore?  When do we hit our threshold and resign ourselves to giving up and quitting?  The bottom line is everyone is different. 

As a mother of a young daughter I try to teach moments of persistence in a variety of everyday lessons. Keep shooting and you will score; study hard and you will get a good grade; encouraging my daughter that being persistent in whatever you do will yield results; and, that she will persevere. Persistence also means being patient.  If what we are trying to accomplish was easy we wouldn’t need to be persistent.  As Oprah says “we must keep moving forward.”  

To be persistent means that we have a vision that drives us to achieve that goal.  A powerful thought that calls for action to back it up. It’s hard to be persistent, life gets in the way and things become overwhelmingly hard. 

If we as women are honest we can feel as if it is super harder for us to achieve. The beauty is that perseverance as a character doesn’t discriminate; so, there are no excuses whether the obstacles are real or perceived. 

Perseverance will help propel us forward. 

The playing field isn’t even but one characteristic that helps to at least make it competitive is persistence. We need to bring it with us wherever we go whether it is to a sell, to the board room, to that idea/product/business.  Persistence helps to make things a little more equitable for us ladies. We have a tendency to work more determined, harder and smarter (that’s my opinion anyway). 

 A recent research study showed when comparing women run CEO companies to men run CEO companies, the companies ran by women outperformed the men. There are real numbers to back up these facts. Check out the Nordea study.

 Surprised?  Don’t be! 

To be persistent we have to possess will power, flexibility, strength of character, determination and a desire to succeed.  

 Tonight I will be celebrating a result from being persistent and persevering with my first book signing event. Mindful Minutes: A Marketer’s Journey Through Business has been published! It is the first in a series of books that I can now claim authorship.  It’s no coincidence that today my daughter’s bible verse quiz is on James 1:2-4“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, [a]whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

So next time you think you have had enough. Stop, pause and push the forward button because as Oprah says we must keep moving forward. 


Sonya Ruff Jarvis, is the Managing Member of Jarvis Consultants and the Founder of the eRetailer Summit and JC Event Group. Sonya has spent most of her career visiting headquarters across global industries.  An expert in the field, Sonya has been published in numerous retail industry b-to-b publications.  Sonya shares her experiences in her upcoming book series:  Mindful Minutes, A Marketer’s Journey through Business: is now available on AMAZON

Sonya has a M.B.A. in Marketing. She is married and has a daughter and they live in Fairfield County Connecticut.  

Follow Sonya on twitter at @jarvisconsult or @eretailersummit.