"Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you"
About this Quote
Determination is being framed here less as a mood and more as a kind of internal contract: the decision to continue even when reality stops cooperating. Waitley’s phrasing is deliberately plain, almost industrial, and that’s part of its appeal. “Gives you the resolve” suggests determination isn’t just grit you either have or don’t; it’s a renewable fuel source that manufactures resolve on demand. The sentence makes persistence feel mechanical and therefore attainable, not mystical.
The word choice also slips in a quiet redefinition of success. The obstacle isn’t a surprise twist; it’s the default setting. “Roadblocks that lay before you” treats resistance as scheduled, not exceptional. That normalizes frustration and reframes setbacks as proof you’re on an actual road, not as evidence you picked the wrong one. It’s motivational writing doing what it does best: relocating the battle from the external world (which you can’t fully control) to the internal one (where you can claim agency).
Context matters. Waitley emerged from the late-20th-century self-improvement ecosystem that prized personal responsibility, performance psychology, and upward mobility. This line fits that era’s confidence that mindset can outmuscle circumstance. The subtext is both empowering and a little unforgiving: if determination “gives” you the ability to continue, then stopping starts to look like a choice. That’s the tightrope of motivational rhetoric - it can steady you through a hard stretch, and it can also quietly imply that failure is a character flaw rather than a collision with systems, luck, or limits.
The word choice also slips in a quiet redefinition of success. The obstacle isn’t a surprise twist; it’s the default setting. “Roadblocks that lay before you” treats resistance as scheduled, not exceptional. That normalizes frustration and reframes setbacks as proof you’re on an actual road, not as evidence you picked the wrong one. It’s motivational writing doing what it does best: relocating the battle from the external world (which you can’t fully control) to the internal one (where you can claim agency).
Context matters. Waitley emerged from the late-20th-century self-improvement ecosystem that prized personal responsibility, performance psychology, and upward mobility. This line fits that era’s confidence that mindset can outmuscle circumstance. The subtext is both empowering and a little unforgiving: if determination “gives” you the ability to continue, then stopping starts to look like a choice. That’s the tightrope of motivational rhetoric - it can steady you through a hard stretch, and it can also quietly imply that failure is a character flaw rather than a collision with systems, luck, or limits.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
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