Fallacy and Strength

Sometimes, strength doesn’t look like fire. It looks like sitting on the floor, too tired to move, but still whispering, “not today.”

Today, I sat alone on the floor.
Tired. The kind of tired that makes even Eric Thomas’ voice sound annoying.
I kept asking myself what was wrong.
No energy to do anything. Just tired.

And then it hit me.
Maybe this is that moment. The one they say defines who you are.
The one where you don’t feel like it, but you do it regardless.

But my bones scoffed at me.
“How delusional,” they seemed to whisper, as my head slumped against my pillow.
A nap? A random scroll through social media?
“Old habits die hard,” they say, and whoever wrote that line, oh boy, e really try.

That was when I realized how important having a system is.
How a consistent system saves you in moments like this.

But here’s the thing: I don’t believe consistency is the real hero everyone celebrates.
It is persistence that keeps you alive.
Consistency might set the pace, but persistence fights through the pain.
To be stinkingly and disgustingly persistent at life, that is the next level.

I remember typing into Google, one evening hell-bent on finding answers to this argument in my head.

“Is consistency the same as persistence?”
My thoughts rolled with the 3G Glo network, slow and uncertain.
Then came the answer: short, quiet and final.
No.

When I read books about life, effort, and success,
I don’t see consistency. I see persistence.
A burning need to survive. To win.

Because to continue regardless of how you feel is not consistency.
That is persistence.
Consistency plus discipline births persistence.

I once saw a movie about a girl who needed someone to sign a form for her.
He wouldn’t, not until he saw she had something.
She had never run a men’s race before, let alone a marathon.
But she had a goal.
She ran, drained of strength, almost of life, and she won.

To survive isn’t just about those fancy “C” words, consistency, commitment, control.
Haha. But sometimes, maybe it is.

That day I learned that “talent is another name for hard work.”
But life has shown me that hard work can outwork talent, though they’ll never be the same.

Tonight, I’m reminding myself to be persistent.
To keep going.
Whether it is through high effort or sheer self-summoned will,
to persist and to exist, regardless.

Insanely so.
That’s the only way to stay alive.

The Prophet ﷺ said:
“The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, though there is good in both. Be eager for what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not give up.”
— Sahih Muslim, 2664

Until the rain writes our names again in the sand,

Yours,
Hameedah.