Grit

Hello and welcome to a pre-Thanksgiving Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is November 20th.

This week, I had a chance to pop into a lunch-n-learn based on Angela Duckworth's book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance which a Wall Street Journal review describes as "a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that--not talent or luck--makes all the difference."

Yes, grit's the stuff on sandpaper. Yes, it also helps a chicken's digestive system function well and break down food. It can even be the name we give the crud that gets lodged into the sweaty cracks of elbows and knees of toddlers playing in sandboxes. But this grit isn't about carpentry, chickens, or cleanliness (or lack thereof); it's about the stuff that makes a person decide to stick to something and see a project through.

What is grit? The short answer based on Duckworth's research is "passion and perseverance for long-term goals."

Grit presenter Susan Kuz (who is a positivity practitioner, founder of Social(ish), and my friend), wasted no time hopping into the topic of grit, helping attendees figure out how much they have right now and how to grow even more. 

Grit helps us develop our potential, reach long-term goals, and bounce back when we experience failure or have difficult times. It helps us be successful. Grit isn’t set in stone, but moves and changes. Apparently, we become grittier as we age, beginning around 50 years of age. I consider this very good news.

The two active ingredients of grit are passion and perseverance. Passion is about what excites you and lights you up on any given day. Diving into passions can boost you into an “upward spiral of positivity.”

Perseverance means doing the thing over and over again and finishing what you start despite the obstacles that come up. This is a tricky thing because, if you've ever started an exercise program, a cross-stitch craft, or a writing project, you quickly realize how much perseverance is in limited supply. The good news is there are 4 things you can work on to build your cache of perseverance.

1. Develop an Interest - It's extremely important to follow your passion, but it's also important to get out of your head. How do you know what you're interested in, anyway? Go "hobby shopping." Get out and try new things. When you've done that, ask yourself what's fleeting and what's sticking. Sometimes saying, "I don’t like it," is great information.

2. Practice – Once you've identified an interest, keep doing it! Practice is where Imposter Syndrome and perfectionism can nip you in the bud. Focus instead on moving towards excellence and having the dedication to keep doing the things that interest you. Have “stretch goals" - small steps you can take to strengthen areas of weakness. Get feedback on your progress and stretch a little bit further. When you achieve the goal, set a new stretch goal and repeat. Let go of "practice makes perfect" and replace it with "practice makes better."

3. Find Your Purpose – Do you have a north star to guide you when you’re not necessarily feeling great at the moment or when things have changed and shifted for you? If not, try crafting a "Why" statement (based on Simon Sinek's work on finding your why). 

Why Statment: To (my contribution) so that (impact)

Here's my attempt: To empower people through writing so that they can confidently share their message with the world. (Together creating a positive impact on the world.)

It's a work in progress. The point is this: Name your True North (the why) so when the how and what changes and throws you off course, you’ve still got a WHY centered on your purpose. That sense of purpose will guide you.

4. Cultivate Hope - Hope means expecting the best in the future and working hard to achieve it. Say you've got the gift of height and love basketball. Any NBA team would be happy to have you and you've got some serious prospects. However, instead of practicing, you sit on the couch all day and watch Netflix. What if you’re only 5’11, love basketball, and work, work, work? You've just increased your chances of becoming an NBA player. (Check out this list of shortest players in National Basketball Association history.)

You've got a choice: You can either decide you're an expert on everything in your life and call it good, or you can embrace challenges and be open to learning. Which one do you think will do a better job of cultivating hope? If you think you're too old, too short, too whatever - guess what? Pretty much anything can be learned. Cultivating hope means tapping into unmet potential.

The bottom line: In Angela Duckworth's words, "Grit is a driver of achievement and success, independent of and beyond what talent and intelligence contribute. To truly do well and thrive, we need the ability to persevere. Without grit, talent may be nothing more than unmet potential. It is only with effort that talent becomes a skill that leads to success."

I think of grit as "stick-to-it-ive-ness." The stuff that we gather from within that compels us to get up and do the work to achieve those long-term goals. But, heck, honestly, it doesn't even have to be a long-term goal. As a mom who's spent twenty years doing the stay-at-home parent thing (eleven of those years building a writing career from home), I've learned that the hardest part is the tedium of routine. When the kids were little, I summed up the cycle of activities in three succinct phrases: lunchtime, storytime, naptime.

Some days I dug down deep, gritted my teeth then got out of bed to change the baby, feed the baby, feed the family, read the stories, play with the kids, clean the house. Children are lovely, but caretaking is often not. Necessary? Yes. Glamorous? No.

"You can do hard things." This is what I tell my kids when they’re whining or crying about homework or folding laundry and just plain don’t want to. "You can do hard things," I say either cheerfully, sympathetically, or matter-of-factly depending on the mood. The teenagers will groan before slowly rolling themselves from the couch to get up and do said homework or laundry. The 4th Grader will wipe away her tears then report back the following day about the moment when she told her friend she was done playing and was going to go play with her Legos in her room by herself, and that this time she didn’t cry or feel bad about telling her friend no.

Seeing their transformation, that self-discipline, and that growing belief that they "can do hard things" inspires me.

It’s what makes me sit down at my desk and puzzle through the sticky spots on writing projects. It’s what makes me do a Czech lesson every day on Duolingo even when I don’t “feel” like it. It's what makes me think about getting back to a daily exercise routine. (Hey, I'm not perfect.)

I can do hard things. You can do hard things. We can do hard things. Together. 

We’ve got grit.

On This Day

Historic Highlights (credits)

1998 - First module of the International Space Station launched

Called Zarya, the module is Russian-built and American owned. The International Space Station (ISS) is a manned artificial satellite that was built and operated by 5 space agencies – the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, US’s NASA, Russia's Roscosmos, and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. The brightest man-made object visible to the naked eye from Earth, ISS orbits the Earth at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) at an average distance of 248 miles (400 kilometers) from Earth.

1985 - Windows 1.0 released

Nearly two years after it was announced, Microsoft released its first graphical operating system. The OS made it easier for users to navigate on their computer screens. It came with Paint, Notepad, Calculator and a game called Reversi.

1959 - Declaration of the Rights of the Child

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the document that laid out the rights of children around the world. The day is also annually celebrated as Universal Children's Day.

1945 - Nuremberg trials begin

The trials were led by the International Military Tribunal and were held to prosecute high-ranking members of the Nazi party for war crimes committed during the Second World War. Of the 23 people tried, 14 were sentenced to death.

1923 - Traffic signal patented

American Garret Morgan was awarded the patent for an automated traffic signal. Morgan’s invention was not the first of its kind, but unlike the other traffic signals which just had stop-and-go signals, his traffic light had a third signal that warned drivers about changes in the stop-and-go lights. This signal was the precursor for today’s yellow light.

Happy Birthday to You!🎶 

1981 - Sam Fuld, American baseball player

1942 - Joe Biden, American politician, 47th Vice President of the United States

1925 - Robert F. Kennedy, American politician, 64th United States Attorney General

1912 - Otto von Habsburg, Austrian/German son of Charles I of Austria

1750 - Tipu Sultan, Indian army officer, king

Remembering You

2013 - Sylvia Browne, essayist, psychic

2006 - Robert Altman, American director, screenwriter

1925 - Alexandra of Denmark

1910 - Leo Tolstoy, Russian author

1737 - Caroline of Ansbach

Embrace your grit and make it a great Saturday!

Kim