Here is the concept that really separates those that think about it from those that act on it….from those that dream about tomorrow to those that actually take the steps to create and live into that tomorrow.
The difference, says research, is what is being called grit! I know, sounds too pedestrian for someone to do research on doesn’t it? But they are!
There are going to be times that as a Category 1 person, your inspiration wanes, or your motivation flags. There are going to be days in the life of every Category 1-er where early morning motivation for sitting practice and journal review of goals for the week is tough to find. And where excellent fitness, food choices and time management seem like a major chore.
I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago speaking to a group of owners of new business start-ups. We were talking about climbing to your world class. And this is what we spent quite a bit of time talking about… and it is something that Category 1 people know…
the only thing that separates excellent from mediocre is excellence requires doing that which those who are mediocre are simply unwilling to do.
And that is what Angela Duckworth the current expert on the topic calls...?
GRIT.
Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals
Self-control is the voluntary regulation of behavioral, emotional, and attentional impulses in the presence of momentarily gratifying temptations or diversions (see the research statement of Duckworth here)
Her new book is fabulous and should be on your reading list this month
There are two traits that dominate the profile of high performance and extraordinary achievement: grit and self-control.
And it doesn’t matter whether you are building a business, a team, a church, a non profit, a family or your personal life, grit and self control is the separator, the shifter for the two groups: those only willing to go half way up the hard mountain and those willing to climb the last hardest half to the summit.
You have heard it said before -- your system is perfectly designed to get the results you are currently getting. In other words results flow from design. If you don’t like the results, you have to change the design and that takes hard work…well it takes grit. Here is why.
Grit is having laser focus on goals, even long-term goals and to keep interest, intensity and effort rolling that direction. Self-control is the ability to be aware of and then regulate behavioral, emotional, and attentional impulses instead of giving way to momentary temptations or derailing gratifications.
Grit and self-control. Now this isn’t rocket science right? Or is it? Unless you deeply believe in your RDF project, unless you are willing to lay it all on the line because climbing to your world-class is worth it then no one else will. But it has to start with you! And that is the good news. It isn’t about being smarter, more insightful, having been born with genius, it is about being clear on where you are going, focusing your life around getting to the next steps that translate into intermediate steps so you are down the path to realizing the RDF IS becoming the new reality.
WildyBetter Inner Action
What is your 2-3 paragraph description of the tomorrow you are heading toward. Are you living perchance or by intention and design?
What are you fitness goals? Did you know that morning fitness routines actually make you smarter? Yep, Harvard research. Serious fitness engagement isn’t just good for your heart and weight control and blood pressure etc… it actually does something to our brain chemistry and makes us smarter. If you are out of shape and need to work the fitness angle don’t delay.
What are your emotional intelligence goals? Self control is a key component in all the EI literature. What are you working on becoming aware of in real time?
What are your interior life spiritual goals? Every major religious tradition says there is no substitute for finding silence as a daily practice to bring peace, better decision-making, a rewired brain, and greater intonation to intuition and creativity?
Shaping these categories, and others that come to mind for your life, and putting them in print, then building them into your daily and weekly rhythm AND sticking with it is what grit is all about.