I’ve been joking lately that, “Tenacity is my middle name” as I keep pushing forward on all the aspects of house recovery. Yet, my 2025 WOTY was Patience. Is it tenacity? Patience? A recent blurb on the etymology of patience made me look further into the nuance meaning of these words. Am I being patient? Tenacious? Persistent? A combination?
First, patience. The word “patience” originates from the Latin word “patientia,” which means “suffering or endurance” as in enduring hardships. One needs patience to accept the long timeline of a large goal. Patience means having the capacity to accept or tolerate delays, troubles, or suffering calmly and without getting angry or upset. I’m certainly not doing that well – I am definitely getting angry or upset with delays and re-loops!
Tenacity. The word tenacity comes from the Latin word tenācitās, which means “an act of holding fast”. Tenacity involves relentless mental effort and a refusal to give up despite difficulties or opposition. Tenacity has the nuance of strategic adaptability and innovation to the pursuit, finding alternative paths or different approaches to achieve the goal. Oh dear. Except for the awareness of, “You can’t fight city hall no matter how insane or illogical or nit-picky the request”, I’ve certainly not been looking for different approaches.
Persist/Persistence The word “persistence” originates from the Latin word “persistere,” meaning “to stand firm” or “to continue steadfastly.” Persistence is the determination to continue striving towards a goal, even when faced with obstacles or setbacks. It is taking active steps to overcome obstacles, even when progress is slow or challenging. It is having a steadfast commitment with prolonged, consistent effort to continue a task. Unfortunately, persistence often involves sticking to the same approach even if it’s not working.
While I’d like to think it’s tenacity, in fact I’m just being persistent. I’m continuing to make the calls, ask the questions, file the paperwork (once again). Month after month after month. It has resulted in getting some disaster reimbursements from FEMA (nine months after the fact) and securing an SBA loan (low interest mortgage) for the house build. Both achievements to celebrate, actually. We are very hopeful for a house build permit any day now (and hoping I’m not jinxing that with my sending the thought out into the Universe), as my General Contractor has also been persistent (with my encouragement) on resolving the (many, nit-picky) obstacles.
AI created this quote comparing the two, recommending the importance of both: In essence, patience allows you to endure the journey, while persistence ensures you keep moving forward, even when the journey is tough.
And so, to endure the long house recovery journey, I will continue to Practice Patience. And yes, the doer in me will continue to Be Persistent.
Have you explored the nuance of words with etymology? What words intrigued you?
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I found the nuances of these words very interesting, Pat. I sometimes think of persistence and tenacity as the same thing, but they really aren’t. It seems you’ve needed some of all three…patience, tenacity, and persistence…through this difficult process. You can add resilience to the list as well: the capacity to withstand or to recover from difficulties. Wishing you luck with the next steps!
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Thanks Christie. It was fascinating to understand the nuance of the words, as I at first thought they were interchangeable. And I agree, resilience is another one I’ve had to have. It’s interesting to be grateful to be retired and dealing with all this; so many are trying to do this while working as well. Some are also managing kids in school, dealing with continued mortgage payments and rent. I never really contemplated the length of time these disasters take to recover from. So when I see them happening all around now (fires, mud slides, tornados, floods), it’s even more heartbreaking.
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You are patiently persistent! I tried it the other way but I think this way is better.
I have been told that patience is the key word for me in this time of my life. But, unlike you, I don’t need the patience of Job!
Are builders and building departments, agencies overwhelmed?
(Funny thing this comment ended up on a post right below yours! Copied it to comment here!)
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I noted below that patiently persistent has a calmness in it that I don’t often feel!
Yes, the building department is overwhelmed; there are literally hundreds of permits needed. It doesn’t help that they have horrible systems, won’t put in any overtime, and are not consistent in their “interpretation” of what’s needed. A real life example: some paperwork was submitted and sat in a person’s inbox for 12 days; the only thing needed was for her to push it to the reviewer. A reviewer who only works 2 days a week. So we lost 3 weeks. Ah well, you’ll hear in my next blog… we finally did get the permit issued. Now the fun starts… building a house.
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I might have mentioned it before, but as remodelers, we deal with building departments in our state. Each town has their own and every one of them has their own rules and regulations for permits. It IS exhausting!
Glad to hear permit is in hand. I look forward to hearing about it!
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I like that you took the time to research the etymology of these pertinent words. The differences reveal themselves with nuance. All are good traits. I think flexibility needs to be on the list, too. Still, seems that progress (however frustratingly slow) is happening.
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It was actually quite fun to delve into the etymology of the words. A return to the researcher in me! And yes, the nuance between tenacity and persistence was fascinating to me.
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Hi Pat – I like the combination of patience with persistence – without the latter, you’d just be treading water indefinitely. Pressing forward to the goal, while giving yourself grace in the process seems to be key to not turning into a screaming wreck. You’re doing so well – and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be a little brighter due to all that patient persistence. x
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Leanne, I like the term patient persistence. It implies a calmness I don’t always feel. Sometimes I do feel more like the screaming wreck! But I do continue step by step, inch by inch.
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