Week Four: Netzach - Endurance
Endurance and ambition is a combination of determination and tenacity. It is a balance of patience, persistence and guts. Endurance is also being reliable and accountable, which establishes security and commitment. Without endurance, any good endeavor or intention has no chance of success. Endurance means to be alive, to be driven by what counts. It is the readiness to fight for what you believe, to go all the way. Without such commitment any undertaking remains flat and empty. It is an energy which comes from within and stops at nothing to achieve its goals. This, of course, requires that endurance be closely examined to ensure that it is used in a healthy and productive manner.
Effective endurance needs to encompass the following seven ingredients: love, discipline, compassion, endurance, humility, bonding and dignity. The problems people have with endurance and commitment are due to a lack of one or more of these seven components.
Day 22
Chesed of Netzach - The Love Aspect of Endurance
For anything to endure it needs to be loved. A neutral or indifferent attitude will reflect in a marginal commitment. If you have difficulty making commitments, examine how much you love and enjoy the object that requires your commitment.
Do I love my work? Do I love my family? Do I love my choices?
If you have no resentments and no regrets, then you can say yes to each of these questions; the salient one being the last. If you love your choices, it will be easy to endure. When we feel stuck in some level of poor choice, it is much harder to endure and sometimes you have to wonder if you should continue to endure.
For endurance to be effective it needs to be caring and loving. Endurance without love can be counterproductive. Raw endurance can come across as harsh and aggressive, which undermines the cooperation of others. Out of sheer determination one may often become controlling and demanding, driving others away. For endurance to be successful it needs a loving and caring attitude, it requires patience.
Is my endurance unloving?
Endurance can be the stamina needed to accomplish any worthwhile goal or the ability to put up with harsh conditions while working towards a better life. Whatever the circumstances of your need to persist, you can do it in a way that is positive or negative in attitude. This is a choice, albeit unconscious at times, but the reaction of those around us will let us know how we are behaving.
Does my endurance cause me to be, or seem to be, inflexible?
There is a difference between determination and obsessive. Sometimes we excuse our obsessive peculiarities to being determined.
Success often calls for us to change our approach because, when we endure, things change and we have to change with them. Nothing is static -even in death.
Does my drive and determination cause me to be controlling?
Some may use the excuse that they just want to get the job done, but their dogged determination is aggressive and overbearing. If you feel like you’re struggling or others aren’t doing what they should, you’ve become more focused on making something happen than the people around you. Remember, it’s always about those who are in your life and how you relate to them.
Am I too demanding?
Barking orders is not endurance; we’re all on the same team and have the same goal; no need to engage in an aggressive manner.
In order to get my way would I allow others to get hurt?
This is a self centered point of view and does not reflect any aspect of healthy endurance.
Do I believe that the end justifies the means?
This is a rationalization for doing whatever you want to do. Only God has the right to do with us as He wishes.
Would I stop at nothing to achieve my goals?
This is the attitude of takers; those that use others until there is nothing left to take. It may seem really important to get that promotion, but if you lose your values in the process, the promotion will be empty and ultimately a disaster.
Do others (my employees, friends, and children) cooperate with me out of the sheer force of my will and drive, or out of love?
If you try to force others to want something as much as you want it, they will resent your efforts and eventually reject what you’re trying to impress upon them.
When my endurance prevails and I overcome the obstacles in my way, am I still loving?
If we approach something with love in our heart and prevail with that as paramount, then we will endure with love still in our heart.
The only thing that removes love is our change in attitude.
Even when defending myself and others against unhealthy influences, am I driven by love or hate?
If we are advocating for someone, it is easy to fall into hating the one who is inflicting the pain on our charge, but it is more productive to focus on the love you feel towards the one you are defending. If you allow your negative emotions to get into the picture, the offender has successfully invaded both of you. Likewise, if you are defending yourself and push back with anger, you will get lost in a negative cycle of feeling bad. We endure much better when we are full of positive and life giving feelings, therefore, love must be present in some form.
When I fight for something I believe in, is it accomplished in a loving manner?
There is a difference between fighting against unhealthy influences and fighting for something worthwhile. Some people can do one, but not the other and actually, we’re talking about three things: fighting for your self, someone else, and for something – all very different things from a psychological point of view but the same in action. Fanatics are never loving, even if their cause is worthwhile. We can defend our self, our loved ones, and a cause in a way that endures resistance and promotes resolution.
Day 23
Gevurah of Netzach – The Discipline Aspect of Endurance
Endurance must be directed toward productive goals and expressed in a constructive manner.
Is my endurance and determination focused to help cultivate good habits and break bad ones?
This may seem self evident, but any bad situation you endure without an escape plan is endurance for the sake of a bad habit, even if it is a relationship. People make all sorts of excuses to stay in dysfunctional relationships with the idea that it is virtuous of them to endure. Too often, something really bad has to happen before someone realizes their endurance is misplaced.
Does my endurance come from strength or weakness?
If you’ve ever been in the position where you are thinking to yourself that you’re tough and can put up with anything, then you know that weak endurance never ends well. Weak endurance is passive and allows things to happen while healthy endurance is active and a process of you working towards something.
Does my endurance come from a deep conviction or out of defensiveness?
If you feel you have to show something to others, then your determination is coming from a position of defensiveness. If, however, you
are doing something a certain way because you believe it is the correct way to do it, you are operating from inner conviction.
Am I ever tenacious out of stubbornness and an unwillingness to acknowledge errors?
Sometimes people want to do things a certain way because that’s the way they’ve always done them; it doesn’t matter that what they want to do is inefficient and poor quality in comparison, they just don’t want to do anything different. There is a point in continual rejection that you have to wonder if just perhaps you are trying to follow the wrong trail.
Am I invested in certain decisions and not prepared to review them?
This is how people get stuck in old bad habits; they can’t input new information, so their conclusion is always the same incorrect solution.
Sometimes we’re afraid of the truth, so we collude with others to keep our self clueless and confused.
Do I use my endurance against itself by being tenacious in my lack of determination?
There are some who are comfortable with the idea that they will never amount to anything and they set their life up to prove this point.
It is obvious self sabotage when someone does things to cause themselves troubles, but doing nothing is just as self destructive.
Do I have a bad habit to break?
There are some habits that nearly everyone would agree is best to stop, too much alcohol, cigarettes, casual sex, meth and cocaine, etc.; however, most bad habits are less toxic, so it then becomes a matter of judging at what point the habit is destructive. It’s a bad habit to have a bowl of ice cream every night, but if my weight is controlled, how bad is that habit? Only with honest examination can we determine if a habit is bad enough to be broken.
Day 24
Tiferet of Netzach – The Compassion Aspect of Endurance
Healthy endurance, directed to develop good qualities and modifying bad ones, will always be compassionate. The compassion of endurance reflects a most beautiful quality of endurance: an enduring commitment to help another grow. Endurance without compassion is misguided and selfish. Endurance needs to be not just loving to those who deserve love, but also compassionate to the less fortunate.
Does my determination compromise my compassion for others?
Sometimes it’s hard to see that others aren’t as enthusiastic as we are about something and therefore not as intent. When you lose your compassion, you lose your patience too and that leads to problems.
Am I able to rise above my ego, be gracious in victory, and empathize with my competitors?
This is called good sportsmanship. Our baser nature wants to show off how great we are, but this is not very compassionate to the one who lost. When you can say ‘good game’ and mean it, you have mastered the compassionate aspect of endurance.
Be patient and listen to someone that usually makes you impatient.
Day 25
Netzach of Netzach – The Endurance Aspect of Endurance
Examine the endurance aspect of endurance, its expression and intensity. Everyone has willpower and determination. We have the capacity to endure much more than we can imagine, and to prevail under the most trying of circumstances.
Do I fear being trapped by my commitment?
This is probably the most common people have when they are either deciding to make or already in a commitment. You can’t really say yes unless you know you can say no and, if you feel trapped, you can’t commit with your full heart.
If yes, why? Is it a reaction to some past trauma?
A past trauma is only one of many reasons we might feel trapped by our commitments. We may have made faulty commitments or be in a situation that changed since we entered it and we no longer align with the goals. The point is to recognize when we feel trapped and to do something about it.
Is my behavior erratic?
If The Endurance Aspect of Endurance is not fully developed, it would be very easy to give up on a commitment as soon as things become difficult. Just remember, if you’re on a hike in the wilderness, you can’t just give up; you must continue until the next populated stopping point.
Am I inconsistent and unreliable?
Even if you feel trapped or can’t totally align with a person or event, The Endurance Aspect of Endurance should make you able to persevere until the job is complete or until you renegotiate the relationship. Just as you need to wait for the roller coaster to stop before you get off, it can be a disaster to jump off before it stops.
Since I have will and determination, why am I so mercurial?
It’s always important to make the distinction between feeling a certain way and acting on those feelings. If you really have will and determination, you will endure even when you don’t feel like it. Don’t ridicule yourself for being in touch with your inner feelings when you’re bogged down in a difficult spot of the process.
Do I accurately estimate my capacity to endure?
People can both over and under estimate their capacity to endure. Some are afraid to start for fear they won’t be able to endure and some
start full throttle but quickly die out. Our ability to endure must be coupled with The Discipline of Endurance in order to modulate what and how we endure our commitments.
Am I afraid of accessing my endurance and committing?
Many feel it’s just too hard and too much work to really commit to something. It is hard and there are times you wonder why you’re doing whatever it is that you are doing, but, when the final curtain drops, if we have chosen our commitments well, we will have lived a full life with lots of love and laughter. Knowing this, why would we be afraid?
Instead of cultivating endurance in healthy areas, have I developed a capacity for the endurance of unhealthy experiences?
When we are in unhealthy situations, we tend to justify staying caught in it by touting how strong we are or how noble we are and how wonderful it is to be such a saint or martyr, but this is all very unhealthy. We were never meant to be in constant turmoil and pain and endurance was never meant for us to stay there.
Do I endure more pain than pleasure?
Some people are proud of how much negativity they can endure because they think it makes them a better, stronger person; however, this doesn’t really happen and they are simply justifying not doing something or, even worse, failing to admit to their own masochistic tendency.
Commit yourself to developing a new good habit
Day 26
Hod of Netzach – The Humility Aspect of Endurance
Yielding - which is a result of humility - is an essential element of enduring. Standing fast can sometimes be a formula for destruction. The oak, lacking the ability to bend in the hurricane, is uprooted. The reed, which yields to the wind, survives without a problem.
Do I know when to yield, out of strength not fear?
The best example of this is learning to be quiet and not argue with an irrational person or someone we know to be a liar. We don’t have to prove our point to anyone, especially to someone who isn’t interested in the truth.
Why am I often afraid to yield?
Too often we keep persisting with someone in the hopes of changing their mind or that they’ll see our point. We may even think we’ve failed somehow if we can’t get them to understand. It is not my failure if someone else wants to hold onto false ideas.
Endurance is fueled by inner strength. Hod of Netzach is the humble recognition and acknowledgement that the capacity to endure and prevail comes from the soul that G-d gave each person. This humility does not compromise the drive of endurance; on the contrary, it intensifies it, because human endurance can go only so far and endure only so much, whereas endurance that comes from the Divine soul is limitless.
Do I attribute my success solely to my own strength and determination?
Success is the luck of the draw or Divine Intervention, whichever way you think about it. There are many people with strength and determination who never make the kind of success they are capable of achieving, only because they didn’t meet the right person or live in the
right town, or any number of variables.
Am I convinced that I am all powerful due to my level of endurance?
This would be arrogant and the antithesis of humility.
Where do I get the strength at times when everything seems so bleak?
Our strength comes from our faith or belief that, in the end, God will provide what we need. Those who believe this find that the replacement for what they lost is often better then what they had originally, but they have to be open to the process and that what they receive may be different than what they anticipated.
When I awake, do I acknowledge G-d for giving me a soul with the extraordinary power and versatility to endure despite trying challenges? This will allow you to draw energy and strength for the entire day.
The whole idea behind the Morning Prayer is to acknowledge God and to ask for help during the coming day. When you know that God is on your side, sometimes things don’t seem so bad.
Day 27
Yesod of Netzach - The Bonding Aspect of Endurance
Bonding is an essential quality of endurance. It expresses your unwavering commitment to the person or experience you are bonding with, a commitment so powerful that you will endure all to preserve it. Endurance without bonding will not endure. One way to ensure that your new
resolution should endure, is to bond with it immediately by promptly actualizing your resolution in some constructive deed.
A tentative commitment is not an enduring commitment; it is easily abandoned when things don’t go well. Theoretically, this should be how all adult relationships start. It’s much easier to bail on a bad relationship before you become bonded to the other person. The adage about being with someone for four seasons before you make a commitment recognizes that it takes a while to truly know someone and a full year is usually long enough to go thru some rough spots. It’s very easy for things to go well when there are no difficulties to face, but many relationships fall apart when the couple needs to face a real external crisis. If it takes several years for this to happen, hopefully both are bonded enough to face the crisis together rather that turn on each other. If the crisis comes from within the relationship, then the couple is not bonded enough to have an enduring commitment.
Day 28
Malchut of Netzach – The Sovereignty Aspect of Endurance
Sovereignty is the cornerstone of endurance. Endurance that encompasses the previous six qualities is indeed a tribute and testimony to the majesty of the human spirit.
Have I ever had to fight for a dignified cause?
Many can fight for someone else’s cause, but not their own. It’s much easier to be dignified in our outrage for another as opposed to when we respond to our own personal affronts. It is when we have to fight for our own unjust attacks or accusations that our ability to remain dignified is put to the test.
Is my endurance dignified?
Unless you’re tied to the stake and about to burn up, martyrs are not dignified; they are just long suffering souls. If you are in a situation in which you have to endure some sort of hardship, no one except the few you confide in should even know about your plight. People who work with dying children often talk about how brave they are. Children don’t have much of an ego and from their point of view, personal suffering is
just the way the world, so they don’t need to be a martyr. It is this simplicity that allows us to be dignified.
Does it bring out the best in me?
Healthy endurance in the face of hardship is a beautiful thing to behold and you may even have awe of the person you are observing. We use to say that it was ‘with grace’ that some one did something.
When faced with hardships do I behave like a king or queen, walking proudly with my head up, confident in my G-d-given strengths, or do I cower and shrivel up in fear?
When you recognize that everything you are and everything good thing you do is because God has created the desire within you. We each have our own contract with God, but his stance is simple, trust and love God, believe He will bless you, thank Him for His blessings and love others with respect. If we do that, God will always fulfill His promise to us. Believe it with all your being and you can withstand anything with
dignity.
Fight for a dignified cause.
Endurance and ambition is a combination of determination and tenacity. It is a balance of patience, persistence and guts. Endurance is also being reliable and accountable, which establishes security and commitment. Without endurance, any good endeavor or intention has no chance of success. Endurance means to be alive, to be driven by what counts. It is the readiness to fight for what you believe, to go all the way. Without such commitment any undertaking remains flat and empty. It is an energy which comes from within and stops at nothing to achieve its goals. This, of course, requires that endurance be closely examined to ensure that it is used in a healthy and productive manner.
Effective endurance needs to encompass the following seven ingredients: love, discipline, compassion, endurance, humility, bonding and dignity. The problems people have with endurance and commitment are due to a lack of one or more of these seven components.
Day 22
Chesed of Netzach - The Love Aspect of Endurance
For anything to endure it needs to be loved. A neutral or indifferent attitude will reflect in a marginal commitment. If you have difficulty making commitments, examine how much you love and enjoy the object that requires your commitment.
Do I love my work? Do I love my family? Do I love my choices?
If you have no resentments and no regrets, then you can say yes to each of these questions; the salient one being the last. If you love your choices, it will be easy to endure. When we feel stuck in some level of poor choice, it is much harder to endure and sometimes you have to wonder if you should continue to endure.
For endurance to be effective it needs to be caring and loving. Endurance without love can be counterproductive. Raw endurance can come across as harsh and aggressive, which undermines the cooperation of others. Out of sheer determination one may often become controlling and demanding, driving others away. For endurance to be successful it needs a loving and caring attitude, it requires patience.
Is my endurance unloving?
Endurance can be the stamina needed to accomplish any worthwhile goal or the ability to put up with harsh conditions while working towards a better life. Whatever the circumstances of your need to persist, you can do it in a way that is positive or negative in attitude. This is a choice, albeit unconscious at times, but the reaction of those around us will let us know how we are behaving.
Does my endurance cause me to be, or seem to be, inflexible?
There is a difference between determination and obsessive. Sometimes we excuse our obsessive peculiarities to being determined.
Success often calls for us to change our approach because, when we endure, things change and we have to change with them. Nothing is static -even in death.
Does my drive and determination cause me to be controlling?
Some may use the excuse that they just want to get the job done, but their dogged determination is aggressive and overbearing. If you feel like you’re struggling or others aren’t doing what they should, you’ve become more focused on making something happen than the people around you. Remember, it’s always about those who are in your life and how you relate to them.
Am I too demanding?
Barking orders is not endurance; we’re all on the same team and have the same goal; no need to engage in an aggressive manner.
In order to get my way would I allow others to get hurt?
This is a self centered point of view and does not reflect any aspect of healthy endurance.
Do I believe that the end justifies the means?
This is a rationalization for doing whatever you want to do. Only God has the right to do with us as He wishes.
Would I stop at nothing to achieve my goals?
This is the attitude of takers; those that use others until there is nothing left to take. It may seem really important to get that promotion, but if you lose your values in the process, the promotion will be empty and ultimately a disaster.
Do others (my employees, friends, and children) cooperate with me out of the sheer force of my will and drive, or out of love?
If you try to force others to want something as much as you want it, they will resent your efforts and eventually reject what you’re trying to impress upon them.
When my endurance prevails and I overcome the obstacles in my way, am I still loving?
If we approach something with love in our heart and prevail with that as paramount, then we will endure with love still in our heart.
The only thing that removes love is our change in attitude.
Even when defending myself and others against unhealthy influences, am I driven by love or hate?
If we are advocating for someone, it is easy to fall into hating the one who is inflicting the pain on our charge, but it is more productive to focus on the love you feel towards the one you are defending. If you allow your negative emotions to get into the picture, the offender has successfully invaded both of you. Likewise, if you are defending yourself and push back with anger, you will get lost in a negative cycle of feeling bad. We endure much better when we are full of positive and life giving feelings, therefore, love must be present in some form.
When I fight for something I believe in, is it accomplished in a loving manner?
There is a difference between fighting against unhealthy influences and fighting for something worthwhile. Some people can do one, but not the other and actually, we’re talking about three things: fighting for your self, someone else, and for something – all very different things from a psychological point of view but the same in action. Fanatics are never loving, even if their cause is worthwhile. We can defend our self, our loved ones, and a cause in a way that endures resistance and promotes resolution.
Day 23
Gevurah of Netzach – The Discipline Aspect of Endurance
Endurance must be directed toward productive goals and expressed in a constructive manner.
Is my endurance and determination focused to help cultivate good habits and break bad ones?
This may seem self evident, but any bad situation you endure without an escape plan is endurance for the sake of a bad habit, even if it is a relationship. People make all sorts of excuses to stay in dysfunctional relationships with the idea that it is virtuous of them to endure. Too often, something really bad has to happen before someone realizes their endurance is misplaced.
Does my endurance come from strength or weakness?
If you’ve ever been in the position where you are thinking to yourself that you’re tough and can put up with anything, then you know that weak endurance never ends well. Weak endurance is passive and allows things to happen while healthy endurance is active and a process of you working towards something.
Does my endurance come from a deep conviction or out of defensiveness?
If you feel you have to show something to others, then your determination is coming from a position of defensiveness. If, however, you
are doing something a certain way because you believe it is the correct way to do it, you are operating from inner conviction.
Am I ever tenacious out of stubbornness and an unwillingness to acknowledge errors?
Sometimes people want to do things a certain way because that’s the way they’ve always done them; it doesn’t matter that what they want to do is inefficient and poor quality in comparison, they just don’t want to do anything different. There is a point in continual rejection that you have to wonder if just perhaps you are trying to follow the wrong trail.
Am I invested in certain decisions and not prepared to review them?
This is how people get stuck in old bad habits; they can’t input new information, so their conclusion is always the same incorrect solution.
Sometimes we’re afraid of the truth, so we collude with others to keep our self clueless and confused.
Do I use my endurance against itself by being tenacious in my lack of determination?
There are some who are comfortable with the idea that they will never amount to anything and they set their life up to prove this point.
It is obvious self sabotage when someone does things to cause themselves troubles, but doing nothing is just as self destructive.
Do I have a bad habit to break?
There are some habits that nearly everyone would agree is best to stop, too much alcohol, cigarettes, casual sex, meth and cocaine, etc.; however, most bad habits are less toxic, so it then becomes a matter of judging at what point the habit is destructive. It’s a bad habit to have a bowl of ice cream every night, but if my weight is controlled, how bad is that habit? Only with honest examination can we determine if a habit is bad enough to be broken.
Day 24
Tiferet of Netzach – The Compassion Aspect of Endurance
Healthy endurance, directed to develop good qualities and modifying bad ones, will always be compassionate. The compassion of endurance reflects a most beautiful quality of endurance: an enduring commitment to help another grow. Endurance without compassion is misguided and selfish. Endurance needs to be not just loving to those who deserve love, but also compassionate to the less fortunate.
Does my determination compromise my compassion for others?
Sometimes it’s hard to see that others aren’t as enthusiastic as we are about something and therefore not as intent. When you lose your compassion, you lose your patience too and that leads to problems.
Am I able to rise above my ego, be gracious in victory, and empathize with my competitors?
This is called good sportsmanship. Our baser nature wants to show off how great we are, but this is not very compassionate to the one who lost. When you can say ‘good game’ and mean it, you have mastered the compassionate aspect of endurance.
Be patient and listen to someone that usually makes you impatient.
Day 25
Netzach of Netzach – The Endurance Aspect of Endurance
Examine the endurance aspect of endurance, its expression and intensity. Everyone has willpower and determination. We have the capacity to endure much more than we can imagine, and to prevail under the most trying of circumstances.
Do I fear being trapped by my commitment?
This is probably the most common people have when they are either deciding to make or already in a commitment. You can’t really say yes unless you know you can say no and, if you feel trapped, you can’t commit with your full heart.
If yes, why? Is it a reaction to some past trauma?
A past trauma is only one of many reasons we might feel trapped by our commitments. We may have made faulty commitments or be in a situation that changed since we entered it and we no longer align with the goals. The point is to recognize when we feel trapped and to do something about it.
Is my behavior erratic?
If The Endurance Aspect of Endurance is not fully developed, it would be very easy to give up on a commitment as soon as things become difficult. Just remember, if you’re on a hike in the wilderness, you can’t just give up; you must continue until the next populated stopping point.
Am I inconsistent and unreliable?
Even if you feel trapped or can’t totally align with a person or event, The Endurance Aspect of Endurance should make you able to persevere until the job is complete or until you renegotiate the relationship. Just as you need to wait for the roller coaster to stop before you get off, it can be a disaster to jump off before it stops.
Since I have will and determination, why am I so mercurial?
It’s always important to make the distinction between feeling a certain way and acting on those feelings. If you really have will and determination, you will endure even when you don’t feel like it. Don’t ridicule yourself for being in touch with your inner feelings when you’re bogged down in a difficult spot of the process.
Do I accurately estimate my capacity to endure?
People can both over and under estimate their capacity to endure. Some are afraid to start for fear they won’t be able to endure and some
start full throttle but quickly die out. Our ability to endure must be coupled with The Discipline of Endurance in order to modulate what and how we endure our commitments.
Am I afraid of accessing my endurance and committing?
Many feel it’s just too hard and too much work to really commit to something. It is hard and there are times you wonder why you’re doing whatever it is that you are doing, but, when the final curtain drops, if we have chosen our commitments well, we will have lived a full life with lots of love and laughter. Knowing this, why would we be afraid?
Instead of cultivating endurance in healthy areas, have I developed a capacity for the endurance of unhealthy experiences?
When we are in unhealthy situations, we tend to justify staying caught in it by touting how strong we are or how noble we are and how wonderful it is to be such a saint or martyr, but this is all very unhealthy. We were never meant to be in constant turmoil and pain and endurance was never meant for us to stay there.
Do I endure more pain than pleasure?
Some people are proud of how much negativity they can endure because they think it makes them a better, stronger person; however, this doesn’t really happen and they are simply justifying not doing something or, even worse, failing to admit to their own masochistic tendency.
Commit yourself to developing a new good habit
Day 26
Hod of Netzach – The Humility Aspect of Endurance
Yielding - which is a result of humility - is an essential element of enduring. Standing fast can sometimes be a formula for destruction. The oak, lacking the ability to bend in the hurricane, is uprooted. The reed, which yields to the wind, survives without a problem.
Do I know when to yield, out of strength not fear?
The best example of this is learning to be quiet and not argue with an irrational person or someone we know to be a liar. We don’t have to prove our point to anyone, especially to someone who isn’t interested in the truth.
Why am I often afraid to yield?
Too often we keep persisting with someone in the hopes of changing their mind or that they’ll see our point. We may even think we’ve failed somehow if we can’t get them to understand. It is not my failure if someone else wants to hold onto false ideas.
Endurance is fueled by inner strength. Hod of Netzach is the humble recognition and acknowledgement that the capacity to endure and prevail comes from the soul that G-d gave each person. This humility does not compromise the drive of endurance; on the contrary, it intensifies it, because human endurance can go only so far and endure only so much, whereas endurance that comes from the Divine soul is limitless.
Do I attribute my success solely to my own strength and determination?
Success is the luck of the draw or Divine Intervention, whichever way you think about it. There are many people with strength and determination who never make the kind of success they are capable of achieving, only because they didn’t meet the right person or live in the
right town, or any number of variables.
Am I convinced that I am all powerful due to my level of endurance?
This would be arrogant and the antithesis of humility.
Where do I get the strength at times when everything seems so bleak?
Our strength comes from our faith or belief that, in the end, God will provide what we need. Those who believe this find that the replacement for what they lost is often better then what they had originally, but they have to be open to the process and that what they receive may be different than what they anticipated.
When I awake, do I acknowledge G-d for giving me a soul with the extraordinary power and versatility to endure despite trying challenges? This will allow you to draw energy and strength for the entire day.
The whole idea behind the Morning Prayer is to acknowledge God and to ask for help during the coming day. When you know that God is on your side, sometimes things don’t seem so bad.
Day 27
Yesod of Netzach - The Bonding Aspect of Endurance
Bonding is an essential quality of endurance. It expresses your unwavering commitment to the person or experience you are bonding with, a commitment so powerful that you will endure all to preserve it. Endurance without bonding will not endure. One way to ensure that your new
resolution should endure, is to bond with it immediately by promptly actualizing your resolution in some constructive deed.
A tentative commitment is not an enduring commitment; it is easily abandoned when things don’t go well. Theoretically, this should be how all adult relationships start. It’s much easier to bail on a bad relationship before you become bonded to the other person. The adage about being with someone for four seasons before you make a commitment recognizes that it takes a while to truly know someone and a full year is usually long enough to go thru some rough spots. It’s very easy for things to go well when there are no difficulties to face, but many relationships fall apart when the couple needs to face a real external crisis. If it takes several years for this to happen, hopefully both are bonded enough to face the crisis together rather that turn on each other. If the crisis comes from within the relationship, then the couple is not bonded enough to have an enduring commitment.
Day 28
Malchut of Netzach – The Sovereignty Aspect of Endurance
Sovereignty is the cornerstone of endurance. Endurance that encompasses the previous six qualities is indeed a tribute and testimony to the majesty of the human spirit.
Have I ever had to fight for a dignified cause?
Many can fight for someone else’s cause, but not their own. It’s much easier to be dignified in our outrage for another as opposed to when we respond to our own personal affronts. It is when we have to fight for our own unjust attacks or accusations that our ability to remain dignified is put to the test.
Is my endurance dignified?
Unless you’re tied to the stake and about to burn up, martyrs are not dignified; they are just long suffering souls. If you are in a situation in which you have to endure some sort of hardship, no one except the few you confide in should even know about your plight. People who work with dying children often talk about how brave they are. Children don’t have much of an ego and from their point of view, personal suffering is
just the way the world, so they don’t need to be a martyr. It is this simplicity that allows us to be dignified.
Does it bring out the best in me?
Healthy endurance in the face of hardship is a beautiful thing to behold and you may even have awe of the person you are observing. We use to say that it was ‘with grace’ that some one did something.
When faced with hardships do I behave like a king or queen, walking proudly with my head up, confident in my G-d-given strengths, or do I cower and shrivel up in fear?
When you recognize that everything you are and everything good thing you do is because God has created the desire within you. We each have our own contract with God, but his stance is simple, trust and love God, believe He will bless you, thank Him for His blessings and love others with respect. If we do that, God will always fulfill His promise to us. Believe it with all your being and you can withstand anything with
dignity.
Fight for a dignified cause.