What does it mean to 'stay the course'?

Stay the course is an idiom of the English language that means to persevere in the face of difficulty when the desired outcome is determined to be worth obstacles met along the way. This saying can be prescriptive, as a form of advice coming from another, or it can be a type of self affirmation, such as, "I must stay the course in order to succeed." Most people know that life is tainted with hard times, and in order to survive, one must deal with the obstacles that life brings. In that way, this is a positive concept that ev