Two monks and a beautiful woman

Two monks were on their way back to their temple, when they saw a beautiful woman sitting next to the river they were about to cross, with a distressed look on her face.

They asked if the woman needed any help. The woman said she needed to cross the river but she didn't know how to swim, would be great if any of them could carry her across the river.

Monk #1 immediately rejected her as its proclaimed in the doctrines that a monk should avoid any physical contacts with any women by all means, while monk #2, on the contrary, accepted the request and piggybacked her across the river, totally disregarding the strong objection from monk #1.

Once they'd crossed the river, monk #2 slowly put her down, and left after she expressed her thankfulness for his help.

As the two continued the journey back home, monk #1 never stopped criticizing monk #2 for not following the doctrines by having physical contacts with the beautiful woman.

When they finally arrived, monk #2 who had just been keeping quiet until then, looked at monk #1 and said:

"I have long put her down since we crossed the river, but you on the other hand, are still taking her with you in your heart until now."

Read this story on a Chinese newspaper some years ago, and still find it very inspiring today.  

Sometimes persistence is really great to have especially when it comes to self-improvement or other positive things that could be done in order to create a better life; other times it might just appear to be some obstacles for one to move on and discover other wonderful things in life. 

Therefore, be persistent ONLY when its for something BETTER.