GRIT – The character combination that really delivers!

Why resilience and single-mindedness are the keys to outstanding achievement and how they can help you to accomplish remarkable things.

A book by the American psychologist, Angela Duckworth, reminded me of the things we tend to  learn and un-learn at various stages in our lives, but need to be on top of our minds at all times. She, specifically, talks about the power of passion and perseverance to deliver success.  Why is it that so many students identified as being ‘talented’ early on in their lives go on to live mediocre lives as adults, whereas many others not so talented go on to achieve amazing things.  And, I believe the same applies to adults in business.  Why is it that so many adult students who hop from a course to course and seminar to seminar never amount to anything while some from the same first course go on to be the ‘super stars’ in their businesses.

I have come to the conclusion that it boils down to the following 3 traits –

• Passion
• Drive and
• Perseverance

PASSION is the stage when one has searched high and low in their surroundings and within themselves to identify the perfect combination of opportunity and personal quality or desire which they want to pursue as a business for themselves, to deliver the immediate essentials in life and then later down the line, what they really want to achieve from their existence on this earth.  It is key that one remains true to their own person and knows their inner self well enough to hone in on this PASSION.  This may take years to arrive at, but it will when one ‘keeps looking’.

DRIVE is the stage when they will go down every path to learn all there is to learn to become successful in their chosen route/passion.  They will identify the successful people in that business and learn the paths they have taken and steps needed to achieve that success.  Once identified, it is essential to list those steps and study them and personalise them to your own abilities and your own talents.  There is even a possibility to explore options to identify shortcuts and leverage other people’s help to reduce the time required in completing some of these steps, like the early stages which might require some research and list building in certain areas.  These tasks can be assigned to someone while one pursues other tasks of higher value.  It is also important at this stage to identify which steps in that path to success may involve tasks which are not your natural ‘strengths’.  It is the DRIVE which will enable you to find ways of overcoming these shortcomings, again through leveraging or further learning.

This clearly leads to the final step of PERSEVERANCE.  It is here when one goes through the graft stage of repeating the steps which have been identified earlier as NOT being  their ‘natural strengths’ and seeking help to learn and overcome those shortcomings.  This can only be achieved while they are out there taking ACTION to enact the steps they have identified earlier towards achieving their SUCCESS.  It is here, lays the true marker for those who succeed or the ones who give up with excuses as to why the chosen path did not work for them.  If one has put in the effort to identify their PASSION and found the DRIVE to identify the steps and lists and classify them into their strengths and weaknesses, it will be the PERSEVERANCE to take action and learn to overcome their weaknesses which will take them onto the path of glory and shine.

Please do not let yourselves down.  Apply what you have learnt and do not let anything stop you.  Remember that day, all those months and years ago when you decided that you were going to be successful, now is the time to continue forward and enact those steps to success.  Another course or a new direction will not help you.

Go FORTH and SHINE!