What affects your ability to achieve your goal. (2)

Grit is a better indicator of success than talent. No matter how talented you think you are, if you don’t put in the work, it will amount to nothing.

In Talent is Overrated, Colvin argues that deliberate, methodical, and sustained practice is the way to achieve true mastery.

“Deliberate practice is hard. It hurts. But it works. More of it equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.” Colvin writes.

Grit begins with a growth-mindset

If you strongly believe in the science of human growth in mindset, you have a greater chance of cultivating your grit over time.

That belief alone can give you the perspective you need to stick with something even when the process is difficult.

What can you do in small ways everyday that would make it easy to take the necessary steps to pursue your life-long goals?

Perseverance and resilience have a lot to do with success than you think.

Grit requires sacrifice: embrace the challenge!

Grit is essential for your success in life, but it is not attractive.

It’s going to get hard, right?

It’s going to be difficult and you are going to want to give up.

And some people, a lot of people, will.

The act of becoming a master at your craft takes a lot of purposeful practice.

You will experience messy frustration. Motivation will ebb and flow, but you can only improve when you commit to constant practice.

You will make tons and tons of mistakes in the process. Making mistakes and failing are normal — in fact, they’re necessary.

Embrace the long repetitive process to get better.

Grit takes time, and many people aren’t giving it. The cost of being the best and pushing towards meaningful work takes a lot of sacrifice.

Many people are not ready for that.

But the whole point here is that, the positive minset needed to get to the long term goal can be developed over time.

You can maintain the effort and interest need to finish hard.

Sometimes you have to let go of something good to grasp something great. The tendency not to abandon tasks in the face of obstacles builds the resilience you need to succeed in life.

Fail forward

Failure is not fatal. Rejection is also not fatal.

Failure is only a setup for a comeback.

Failure might still sting a little, but when you have grit, it inspires you to want to do better.

Instead of letting boredom be a sign to switch gears, people with grit persevere.

Carrie by Stephen King was rejected 30 times before it was published.

Animal Farm by George Orwell was rejected because there was no market for animal stories in the USA back then.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was rejected 12 times and J. K. Rowling was told “not to quit her day job.”

Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star in 1919 because, his editor said, he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

Darwin was not enthused on becoming a scientist his whole life, thanks to his dad, who called him lazy and too dreamy.

Darwin once wrote, “I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect.”

So always remember: Be proud of your work. And never quit trying.

Cultivate your grit and push yourself further outside your comfort bubble. And remember what Ryan Holiday said “The obstacle is the way”.