Discovering Grit

I was loaned a book by my great friend Steve (Koi) some months ago, but it sat unread on my shelf for months. I finally started reading this in October at what I felt was an opportune time. It was the same time I started tinkering with the idea of writing. I can say that hands down that the wisdom and advice in this book are responsible for many of the habits I've cultivated around my goal of becoming a writer.

Grit is defined by Angela Duckworth as having both passion and resilience for long-term goals. It demonstrated time and time again that having grit wins over innate talent or intelligence. Both were things I knew I didn't possess in the context of writing. This book shouted at me that this didn't matter and that my drive would be the key and that grit could be grown. This lit a fire within me.

The book time and time again demonstrates that effort trumps talent. And that knowing you have talent in a space actually means you strive less or put less effort to achieve something. Whilst this can start out as an advantage, it can be the very thing that stop you from achieving even more because you don't see the need to have to improve.

Grit. It's the special ingredient that shapes whether someone will become successful at something and ultimately have a high level of satisfaction in their lives. And no, this does not just apply to making money or working. It can apply to anything but understanding the building blocks is essential to making it work for you.

The book points out that when people see others who are successful in a discipline, they generally chalk it up to talent, luck or genius. They rather have this view over acknowledging that actually all that person's success might have been due to a tonne of hard work or grinding every night. This thinking permits themselves to think that due to these factors (talent, luck or context) which they don't have, in no way could they achieve the same and therefore not even try to. This is a lazy thought and a dangerous one especially if it's in assessment of a life goal you may have.

I know this train of thought, I've had it many times in the past. Investing is a good example of that. I'd always use to observe those around me who are good with money, investments and think to myself "Wow, they must be so well connected or an expert at this to be able to make those moves." or "They must earn a shit tonne of money to be able to invest, I don't earn enough just yet." These were just some examples which led to mentally exclude myself from even trying.

About 6 years ago or so, I decided to take my first steps into breaking this mental barrier down. I bought and read The Barefoot Investor - by Scott Pape. This book was a game changer for me and is responsible for the investment journey I am on. I was expecting to uncover secrets about the most complex investing strategies, but instead it basically gave me a super simple checklist to complete. That was one of my biggest personal breakthroughs and ever since nothing is too complicated to approach. it just requires time to learn and execute on a new checklist of tasks.

In hindsight and thanks to my new learnings from Grit, I realised that what I had done was set a high-level goal to strive for and then gradually built habits that aligned to that and slowly but consistently executed. I'm still no genius in this space, but I've learnt that with enough time and action, I can learn anything in this space. I've since gotten into shares, property, property development, business ideas and the list goes on out of sheer curiosity.

Through simplicity comes strength. The simple lessons I keep finding in the book about Grit, fuels my writing journey and I am taking the time to practice what I find each day. Now that I am consciously cultivating my grit, I've focused this energy on my new and unknown venture into the world of writing. I'm energised by the fact that each word I type, each draft I revise, each page I read and every new word I learn is propelling me upwards and onwards to achieving something great.

I excitedly hit publish on another blog post and I thank you for reading.