Persistance - do you have it?

This morning I learned a lesson from my cat. Sounds strange I know, but work with me here. It appears that animals instinctively have persistance - why don't we as the more developed element of the animal community have the same instincts?

This morning, my 16 pound cat, Grover, eye balled the window sill of an open window. It is 70 degrees and beautiful outside and he wanted some fresh air I suppose. He looked it at from the floor and then from the arm of a near by chair. Keep in mind his size and the fact that the window sill is 3 inches wide. He made one jump from the chair - crashed and burned, barely landing on all fours on the floor below. He made a second jump almost immediately from the arm of the chair and again... crashed and burned. He stood up, shook it off, pranced around a bit as if to say "What? Nobody saw that. I'm still cool." and then began to reevaluate the situation. He stood on the floor, did a few gyrations of jump preparation (if you have a cat, you know what I am talking about) and then with me quietly cheering in the background - he took the leap from the floor and aced his window sill mount. I gave him a ten for the feat and then began to think about how many people would have given up before the first jump.

They would have eye-balled the ledge, calculated thier size and added some pride and pessimism and said "it will never work". Some would have given in after the first failed attempt and still more after the second. How many times do you try the seemingly impossible or difficult before you say "to heck with it!" How many times do you give up right before that time that would have landed you on your goal? Something to think about - are your insticts telling you to persist or are the voices in your head telling you to back down? Lessons are everywhere...are you looking for them?

Stay Contagious!
Monica