About a month ago, I took my teenage daughter and her friends to the local ice rink. I don’t skate, and my daughter has only been once before, but her friends all skate reasonably well.

While I didn’t put on any skates, my daughter did. For the next hour, she slowly inched her way around the rink with the help of her friends. She fell on more than a few occasions, but kept getting back up again.

But I her story isn’t the one I want to tell. It’s of another kid on the ice. This was a young boy maybe six or seven who appeared to be there by himself. Maybe his parents were like me and watching from the sidelines. In any case this boy, wearing a green knitted cap, was doing reasonably well – except when he wasn’t.

He had the motions right and could move forward at a good speed, but was having the hardest time staying balanced. He’d start forward, go for a few seconds, then stand up a little too straight. When he did, his feet would fly out from under him and he’d land on his rear end. Then he’d pick himself up and do it again. And again. And again. And again.

I watched him for the better part of an hour doing this over and over. During that time I figure he fell at least 200 times. And he got back up every single time. It didn’t phase him at all. He just kept at it.

“Fall seven, rise eight” is a Japanese proverb used to describe perseverance. To persevere is to keep moving toward a goal or outcome despite any and all challenges that come your way. We’ve all had instances where we’ve persevered. But we’ve probably had many more where we didn’t.

When we persevere, we grow. We become better for ourselves. Depending on the goal, perseverance may help others too.

The kid’s perseverance had nothing to do with anyone other than himself. He really wanted to skate, so he kept skating no matter how many times he fell down. No one made him do it. He didn’t do it for anyone else. It was all about him.

Let’s look at a very different example about Nelson Mandela and his mission to stop apartheid and have equality for everyone in South Africa. He spent over 30 years fighting for the rights of the black people who are a majority in the country. His desire to see his brothers as equals led him to endure 24 years in prison.

Most of us know the outcome of his perseverance. In 1988, he was freed from prison. Soon after, blacks were given equal rights. And ultimately, in 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

Most of as don’t see ourselves as the next Nelson Mandela. That’s ok. Very few people get out there and change their country so significantly. That’s why those people end up in the history books.

However, the real tragedy is that many of us don’t even behave like that little boy who kept on getting up every time he fell down on the ice.

The next time you feel like giving up because something is “too hard”, remember that if a six year-old can keep getting back up, you can too.