You could be a fantastic singer.
You could be an amazing poet.
You could be an awesome athlete.
You could be a math wizard.
It DOESN'T MATTER who you are. If you don't have grit, you're not going to make it in this world.
What is "Grit"?
Grit is the ability to embrace failure.
It's the ability to persevere.
It's the ability to go on and laugh at the face of adversity.
Of course, there are a huge array of things that go into a person's success ranging from intelligence to creativity, but GRIT is what really moves you down the path of success. It's well-known that overnight success takes about 5 years. It's gonna take a lot more than you "being good" at something to get you where you want to go. There are going to be obstacles. Unfortunately, these days we see how our children are becoming soft.
We do certain things for our kids that could prevent them from "having their feelings hurt". While doing this, we also teach how failure is "bad" and to be "avoided at all costs" instead of it being something that should help guide a person's growth. It's no surprise that we've seen a significant increase in anxiety in today's youth compared to past generations. The environment is encouraging it.
We're doing a lot of coddling while society is becoming more suited towards the gritty as opposed to the faint-hearted.
We constantly provide positive reinforcement all while shaming and completely discouraging failure.
If grit is something you feel is missing from your life and is something you desire, there are a few key ingredients you can gather and work on to be well on your way:
Courage
Courage and grit go hand in hand. They feed off of each other. They need each other. They love each other.
Courage is a muscle that needs to be trained. Unfortunately, it's the fear of failure that can prevent its growth.
On the other hand, FORTUNATELY, there's regime to increase and strengthen one's courage.
"Do something that scares you everyday."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
If you don't train your courage, it will shrink. Train it and it will grow.
It's what you need to fuel the grit.
Do You Hustle, or Do You Just Show Up?
Showing up and being dependable is important. Sure.
But do you aim to bring results to the table? or is showing up all you got?
You gotta prove your worth. You have to desire to do a good job at whatever you're doing. Not a perfect one, but one that shows care and effort. Sometimes, it's better to aim for the gold than to be worried about showing to practice.
Better to be the all-star than the water boy.
Endurance
Long-term goals take some patience and consistency. Some of the grittiest have goals ranging from 6 months - 5 years and they spend hours a week pursuing them. To reach your goals, it's going to take A LOT of practice. But with practice comes you becoming BETTER.
As put in the end of Season 2 of Netflix Original's Bojack Horseman:
"It gets easier, but you have to do it everyday. That's the hard part."
Resilience
There will be obstacles. How you react to them often determine how they effect you. Will you find the opportunities within your failures? Or will you give up and fixate on them?
There's always a new path to take when there's a road block. There's no need to turn around. Just find a new way.
“Everything will be alright in the end, and if it is not alright, it is not the end.”
-Someone Gritty
Aim for Excellence. Perfection is impossible.
It's cool to aim for perfection. Some times it's needed in certain when doing certain things.... like driving.
But it should not be the attitude you hold. That opens the door for a variety of mental disorders (OCD, Anxiety, Depression, etc.)
The attitude should instead be excellence.
It allows for you to embracing failure
It allows for vulnerability
It continues you on the ongoing quest for improvement.