The Importance of Being Persistent

For the last couple of days I have been lethargic like you wouldn't believe. To make the long (and rather unpleasant) story short: I was accosted by severe motion sickness returning home via a bullet-shaped metal bird, which also scrambled my sleep patterns, in turn bequeathing me with a cold. The ultimate result was a woman with a complete lack of motivation to do anything at all.

When my sleep patterns are disturbed, everything is disturbed. This is primarily due to the fact that the human body operates by a series of patterns and balances. When these systems are skewed, exciting little dysfunctions like insomnia arise. My insomnia probably finds its cause in a hormone called cortisol, a stress hormone that activates a state of liveliness.

This oh-so-scientific graph (notice the sarcasm) depicts how cortisol levels ought to behave in a perfectly normal adult human being. It begins rising in a steep incline at about 6am, peaking at 9am or so. From that point onwards, it drops. Thus, by the individual's bedtime, it's back down to its low, nighttime levels. Each person requires some semblance of this process in order to become alert and active throughout the day.

The incredibly scientific graph (again, sarcasm) changes a little bit for teenagers and young adults. During and shortly after the pubescent years, the activity of all the growth hormones in the body take precedence over the maintenance hormones. Thus, the teen graph looks more like this:

In this graph, cortisol rises to its peak much later and reaches its low point much later as well. That is why you're likely to find your resident teen sleeping long after the cock has crowed and awake many hours after everything of a sensible nature has gone to bed. Shifted though it is, this pattern is still natural and completely acceptable (even if it may not be compatible with today's public-school start times).

Now, my cortisol map (just about as scientific as the first two) looks like neither of the former graphs. Its activity (with the regular levels superimposed in blue) looks more like this:

As you can see, it never really peaks. It just kind of slumps itself to a barely functioning level, and then oozes slightly downwards. In comparison to where it ought to be, it's much too low in the morning, and much too high in the evening. Hence my problems sleeping (at bedtime, cortisol levels are still telling my body to be somewhat active) and motivating myself during the day (because, although too high at night, it isn't quite stimulating enough at daytime).

Thankfully, the human body is equipped with more than one stimulating agent. This other hormone is adrenaline, and it kicks in when the body is prompted to sudden action by an outside stressor. At least, that's how it's supposed to work.

Unfortunately, in my off-balance body, adrenaline fulfills the role of primary stimulant. This means that instead of receiving quick spikes when needed, I'm basically running on adrenaline all the time. The silver lining to this dysfunctional raincloud is that when I'm at school, at work, or with friends, I have the energy to behave like a human being. The downside is that when I'm on a break (without anything to stimulate the adrenaline reaction), I'm basically a breathing vegetable.

There are steps I can take--am taking--in order to correct the cortisol imbalance in my body. Physical health was not really the point of all this anyway. The woe-begotten tale of my neurological predisposition to lethargy functions as an unfortunately necessary precursor to what I really want to talk about: the importance of persistence. So here we go!

I like to think about how to change the world. I also like to throw myself "what-if" parties about the things I could do were I to get enough sleep. Once I get over myself, however, I like to read about people who did make a positive impact on this biosphere we call home. Men and women such as Jim and Elizabeth Elliot, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Eleanor Roosevelt, George Washington, Martin Luther, Margaret Thatcher, and St. Augustine of Hippo are my heroes. But I think that my favourite world-changer of them all is William Wilberforce.

This man lived in late-18th/early-19th century England, in an era when the slave trade still existed and prospered. Cruelty, not just to people with different coloured skin, but to all the lower classes, and to animals as well, was common, accepted, and enjoyed.

It wouldn't be fair to say that William Wilberforce recognized all this and condemned it from the outset. Really, it isn't quite fair to hold him up as a beacon of everlasting persistence--as I'm attempting to do--because he didn't protest the cultural cruelty in the beginning, and he wasn't consistent and determined. He did, however, become so.

That isn't to say that he wasn't ambitious or accomplished. The young Wilberforce did well in school and became the youngest MP in Parliament at the tender and minimal age of 21. He was charismatic and well-spoken; effective in his pursuits. But he wasn't exactly responsible. Wilberforce led a rigorous social life that frequently caused him to be reckless in other areas of his life. But that would soon change.

Sometime in 1785, William Wilberforce converted to Christianity. Beginning in a lengthy carriage ride with a childhood mentor by the name of Isaac Milner, Wilberforce became convinced of the truth and importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Soon afterward, he noticed the horrors that his culture had adopted as habitual and formed two goals:

1. The Reformation of Manners
2. The Abolition of Slavery

In other words, he wanted to transform his culture into one that observed virtue and praised it, and he wanted to free the downtrodden from their unjust oppression.

Do you know, dear reader, why William Wilberforce was such a remarkable man? It's not because he was the youngest MP in Parliament or because he was so eloquent. William Wilberforce is a man of note because he set two impossible goals and saw them both fulfilled in his lifetime and by his hand. You can probably guess how.

Sheer persistence.

To accomplish the first, Wilberforce installed habitual excellence into his life. He was already a well-known and well-liked fellow, being so publicly active; people watched him. So, he gave up all but a few of those clubs that were so popular back then in which men indulged themselves in all manner of talk. Instead of meeting with other politicians to socialize after church, as was common, he went home to his family and made it a point to be involved in his children's lives. He treated everyone he met, whether beggar, servant, or nobleman, with love and civility. Others began to follow his lead. William Wilberforce had effectively made goodness fashionable in a culture that celebrated cruelty.

The second of his two goals: the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of slaves, was an even more active and arduous process. Wilberforce worked closely with a group of activists, including Thomas Clarkson, and more loosely with a group of colleagues, including his friend and England's youngest Prime Minister ever, William Pitt the Younger, to outlaw the slave trade and free the slaves of England and her territories. It was grueling, tiresome, frustrating, and frequently fruitless labor. After over three decades of political movement, Wilberforce&Co succeeded in outlawing the trade; three days to the day of his death, William Wilberforce witnessed the Slavery Abolition Act, which banned slavery forever. Through the consistent and sometimes covert actions, Wilberforce paved the way for a revolution in the definition of freedom for mankind.

These days there's a lot of talk about dreaming big and believing in yourself. When I tell myself I can't make a difference, it's not for want of big dreams or self-confidence. It's because I feel limited by my inabilities. I'm predisposed, I say, to lethargy because of my cortisol patterns. I make excuses because of my insomnia, my influence, my past, my present, my future: whatever it is I can get my hands on to explain why I haven't done, or am not doing, anything noteworthy. When I do that, I'm missing the point entirely.

It's not about predispositions or talents or even obstacles. It's the ability to persistently plug away towards the finish line that really matters. That sort of passion and determination is what pushed Wilberforce. That's why he succeeded.

One thing that I left out of my regrettably abbreviated biography of William Wilberforce was his poor health. From the early childhood, Wilberforce was a fragile individual, predisposed to illness with poor eyesight and a failing constitution. He suffered from these ailments, and more, all throughout his life. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, one of the most influential men in the world was also one of the most diseased. Take heart, there's hope for us yet.

There's always something that will try to stand in your way. To employ the cliche, there will always be mountains. But those can't stop a person who persistently keeps going. Like adrenaline, big dreams and big belief are important to get you started, but just like the cortisol that wakes you up everyday without fail, only consistent and determined action will lead you to succeed.

So my friends, take a page from Wilberforce's book: walk with God, a chip on your shoulder, and all the persistency you can muster. "The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going."  

Best wishes,
Nicole

P.S. There's a biography called William Wilberforce by William Hague, and one called Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas that you really ought to read if Wilberforce interests you, and he should, because he was clearly one of the most incredible men to walk this earth.