Strength, fortitude, gutsiness, grit, dynamism, determination, purposefulness, brilliance, courage; these are all wonderful traits to have, whether you’re hoping to accomplish a personal goal or produce something of value.

Also vital, though, and often under-appreciated, is the importance of just showing up and continuing to do something over and over again for an extended period of time.

Mere presence and participation are seldom celebrated or sexy. Staunchness doesn’t tend to earn accolades, and persistence doesn’t typically win us any medals.

But doing something with consistency and intent is worthy of respect, whatever the outcome and however seemingly humdrum the process.

Dedication of this kind typically requires many of those aforementioned, oft-celebrated attributes, even if they present in a quieter, humbler way.

It also generally results in a more sustainable type of productivity that persists through lifestyle and environmental changes, and continues to feel worthwhile even when no one else is paying attention to what we’re doing; it doesn’t require fanfare as fuel.

Conscious attention to what we’re doing is important even with these repetitive tasks and habits, as such intention allows us to slowly iterate into more skillful, capable versions of ourselves—based on the metrics we choose to use to measure such things.

But one needn’t perform in a swashbuckling, dramatic, or public fashion to benefit from persistence: sometimes the things we do for ourselves, without comment or spotlight or even any great skill, are the most valuable.

Revolutionary ideas, paradigm-shifting projects, and dramatic lurches in one direction or another tend to catch our attention because we’re primed to notice dramatic movements and heroic-seeming efforts.

Basic maintenance, simple routines, and calm, modest improvement over time doesn’t always grip us in the same way. But that doesn’t diminish its role as a cornerstone of societal and individual well-being and strength.

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