I was reading this article and it said to write down the top ten qualities that you value. I typically never do these things because honestly they seem kind of stupid and I never really learn anything, but I did this one because it was a slow day and I was a bit bored. So I sat and I wrote:
- Humor
- Confidence
- Being Considerate
And then I started to go blank. TEN THINGS. That’s a lot and I had only came up with three! As I sat staring at that piece of paper I remembered grit. I used to not be able to place this emotion (is it an emotion?) into a word. I knew it as this feeling that was constantly pushing me when I felt like I was at the end of my rope.
I didn’t always have it, or at least it wasn’t always as strong as it is now. I think that’s really important because that means it can be learned. I know a lot of people who are missing grit. I also know people who have more than I do. I just thought it’s worth mentioning because at the moment I am balancing a lot. I have a full-time job and I go to school full-time and I also am attempting to have a social life (couldn’t have picked a worse time to decide to get one), and now more than ever I have to rely on grit.
It’s because grit is what is there when you don’t have anything else to give. When you are dead tired after going to work all day and you get home and still have homework to do, that’s grit. When everything goes wrong, and I mean everything, and you are sitting wherever you sit when everything goes wrong, and you dig down deep for something to push you through it, that’s grit.
I actually remember the first time that I was really pushed to my limits, I was driving 2 hours to an SAT prep class twice a week, going to basketball practice (which was an ordeal in itself), and was so genuinely unhappy in school, that one day I told my mom that I just couldn’t do it anymore and she said:
“you can do anything for 6 weeks”
and then after that 6 weeks ended she said:
“you can do anything for 8 weeks”
and she kept saying that to me until I graduated.
Then I left, went to college and now I say it to myself all the time sometimes its minutes, sometimes it’s hours, sometimes its weeks but it’s a little thing that always seems to help.