People today often feel depressed. Well, others are struggling. While other feel like sticking to the routine. Some don’t feel like have any great ideas and don’t feel like have enough time to make the good ideas great. They feel like giving up. Have you ever wondered what makes someone a good leader or good parent? Why do some people accomplish their goals while others fail? What makes the difference? Research is starting to reveal that your mental toughness — or “grit” as they call it — plays a more important role than anything else for achieving your goals in health, business, and life. That’s good news because you can’t do much about the genes you were born with, but you can do a lot to develop mental toughness.
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Duckworth studies achievement, and more specifically, how your mental toughness, perseverance, and passion impact your ability to achieve goals. You can develop superhuman levels of mental toughness. How? For you, it might be… going one month without missing a workout going one week without eating processed or packaged food delivering your work ahead of schedule for two days in a row, meditating every morning this week, grinding out one extra rep on each set at the gym, calling one friend to catch up every Saturday, spending one hour doing something creative every evening week... Whatever it is, be clear about what you’re going.
That’s Mental toughness. It is an abstract quality, but in the real world it’s tied to concrete actions. You can’t magically think your way to becoming mentally tough, you prove it to yourself by doing something in real life. Mental toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be worked to grow and develop. If you haven’t pushed yourself in thousands of small ways, of course you’ll wilt when things get really difficult. Mental toughness is about your habits, not your motivation. Mental toughness isn’t about getting an incredible dose of inspiration or courage. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions.
Mental toughness comes down to your habits. It’s about doing the things you know you’re supposed to do on a more consistent basis. It’s about your dedication to daily practice and your ability to stick to a schedule. Remember your mind is a suggestion engine. Consider every thought you have as a suggestion, not an order. Right now, your mind is suggesting that you feel tired. It is suggesting that you give up. It is suggesting that you take an easier path. If you don’t give up on something you truly believe in, you will find a way. It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down. It does not matter how slowly you go so long Life is a constant balance between giving into the ease of distraction or overcoming the pain of discipline. It is not an exaggeration to say that our lives and our identities are defined in this delicate balance.
What is life, if not the sum of a hundred thousand daily battles and tiny decisions to either gut it out or give it up? This moment when you don’t feel like doing the work? This is not a moment to be thrown away. This is not a dress rehearsal. This moment is your life as much as any other moment. Spend it in a way that will make you proud. And yet, despite our resistance to it, we have never found ourselves feeling worse after the hard work was done. There have been days when it was damn hard to start, but it was always worth finishing. Sometimes, the simple act of showing up and having the courage to do the work, even in an average manner, is a victory worth celebrating. Maintain perspective.
Your life is good and your discomfort is temporary. Step into this moment of discomfort and let it strengthen you. Theodore Roosevelt famously said, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” So often it seems that we want to work easily at work worth doing. We want our work to be helpful and respected, but we do not want to struggle through our work. We want our stomachs to be flat and our arms to be strong, but we do not want to grind through another workout. We want the final result, but not the failed attempts that precede it. We want the gold, but not the grind. There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow. The struggles we endure today will be the ‘good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow. Because Life's trials will test you, and shape you, but don’t let them change who you are. Hope is holding on to the promises of God.
So Don’t give up! Life is beautiful...
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