Wednesday, 25 March 2015

The word of the day is: GRIT

In truly sporadic fashion over the last 24 hours I've been working through deep feelings of angst. Cue the crude copy and pasted conventional definition:

"Angst, often confused with anxiety, is a transcendent emotion intuit it combines the unbearable anguish of life with the hopes of overcoming this seemingly impossible situation. Without the important element of hope, the emotion is anxiety, not angst. Angst denotes the constant struggle one has with the burdens of life that weighs on the dispossessed and not knowing when the salvation will appear. 'an airplane crashes into the side of a remote snow-covered mountain; those passengers that worry about their lives without hopes of survival only face anxiety. In contrast, those passengers who worry about their lives with hopes of survival however do not know when the rescue party will arrive face angst'." (Urban dictionary)

..I've been down on myself because all in one moment I realized that I had made some really bad and ineffective moves over the past 2-3 weeks. This revelation bothers me to my core firstly because I know how much potential I have to be better however more specifically it bothers me because I consider myself obsessed with self-improvement. I'm doing an amazing job of developing my strengths (i.e. leadership, creativity, motivating others) however the same can not be said for my weaknesses (i.e. punctuality, managing personal finances, taking care of myself and close friends emotionally & academics).

SO... What do you do when after focusing on the process for a considerable amount of time you realize you've been investing time in a flawed process?? Well, first you feel angst.

Then,

embody GRIT. "Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual's passion for a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective" (wikipedia). Grit is stamina, and sticking through the tough times for as long as it takes. Grit is what I learned through my years in wrestling. There isn't a lot science knows about grit yet however we do know that there is no correlation between talent and grit. Actually, they are more closely inversely related than they are related. That's the big reason why you'll hear me say that there's nothing special about me in terms of my ability to get extraordinary things done. The Key is Grit.

Failure outside of time sensitive or competitive constraints generally doesn't exist until you stop trying to reach your goal. I haven't failed anything in what seems like a long time and that is largely due to the fact that I've changed my focus from being completely result centric to being more increasingly focused on process. This is a careful line to walk because while being focused completely on results and achieving goals we spend every moment before achieving said goal/result in some state of suffering (the benefit being that you reach your goals/results faster). Conversely, when focused on the process I've learned that it is easier to chase perfection and develop habits of excellence (the risk here being that you get things done more slowly). Toeing the line between the two modes of thinking requires grit.

Remember that.

Love,
your favourite president-elect..
Kyle Denzel Rose


  1. ps. I found the link below after writing this blog, and it totally reinforces my points: 
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/margaretperlis/2013/10/29/5-characteristics-of-grit-what-it-is-why-you-need-it-and-do-you-have-it/

Actual Blog References:
(video) http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit?language=en
(definition) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grit_(personality_trait)
(definition) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Angst

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