Hello Roses,

An entrepreneur once told be about her three G’s that she uses to determine other entrepreneurs; Grit, Grace and Graft. Grit has been explored in depth for more than 100 years, none more recently than Angela Duckworth’s book ‘Grit’. I’ve always thought of myself as quite gritty, anything I try, I want to do it to the best of my ability and usually will not give up until I am happy at the level I’ve reached. Reading Angela’s words, it has become apparent that success in a certain field has less to do with talent and more to do with determination (or grit). People are often so focused on achieving a high-level goal, that every action in their life somehow relates directly to achieving this.

She talks about how a lot of people confuse effort with grit. Effort can be seen as something short term, something to be used to achieve a quick result. Unfortunately, it needs refuelling fairly often and it is usually at this point, non-gritty people would give up, or turn their attention to another task. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with this, and I’ve definitely been known to do it when I am not too passionate about a project, there are some things that I would never dream of giving up. That is the difference between effort and grit. Grit has a lot more longevity to it. In order to achieve those top level goals, one must have grit because it will certainly be a marathon, not a sprint.

The good news is that grit is essentially like a muscle, the more it is exercised, the stronger it gets. I think I became gritty only after successfully not succeeding for many years academically. Once I got ‘medically’ better, my goal was to achieve academically because I knew I could. The determination was so strong and I made sure I did everything necessary to achieve that goal and when I felt like my motivation was wavering I remembered why I started and what exactly it was that I wanted to achieve. This grit has not left me since. It is stronger today than it ever has been. It should be mentioned, that grit is by no means directly correlated to IQ. I find there is a certain assumption that successful people (especially in academic fields or fields of expertise) that they are incredibly smart. That is not always the case, as explained earlier effort counts for more than talent. The more passionate about a certain topic you are, the more likely you are to succeed. I think this should be said more in schools where only the highest achievers are worth pushing further.

Another point to mention, is that even the grittiest of people will have days of zero motivation. I believe another common assumption is that successful people are successful every minute of every day and their life has and always will be great. No. There are days where Olympic gold medallists, Nobel Prize winners, CEO’s will have doubt on their abilities and tenacity to go on. But their top line goal is so clear and strong that after a bit of reflection the grit and determination comes back. As we said earlier, it’s a marathon.

If you’ve ever thought “I don’t have what it takes to become successful” I would have to disagree. I think we can sometimes limit our own beliefs due to thinking we do not have the right characteristics. But grit is something that can be trained. You can become successful in any venture you wish so long as you see it out to the end. There will be detours, there will be bad days, but success is always waiting for you at the end. Take a deep breath, remember how amazing you are and get cracking on that dream of yours. There is absolutely nothing to stop you.

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Until next time,

Em x