Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Grit and Rough Days

Resilience.
I was told this week that I am one of those super resilient people. At the time, I nodded my head in agreement. Logically, it seems like an accurate statement. All my 47 years of life experiences appear to support this conclusion.

However, I looked up several definitions of Resilient and I could not fully relate to any of them. The explanations used words like courage, patience (nope - not me) and unharmed. Descriptions referred to phrases such as "refusing to give up" and "even better for the experience." Resilience is also defined as a process - an adaptive response to a challenging situation.

GRIT.
Woody Allen famously declared that “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Grit is what allows you to show up again and again. Now, THIS I can relate to ...                 

To me, Grit is about showing up for Life. Grit is related to perseverance, passion and commitment. It is about "staying the course." The Grittier person does what needs to be done and does not think of it as a choice. Grit is a trait - you are born with it or you are not. While I do not know much about my Mother (she was killed when I was 4 years old), I am positive the Grit shared by both my brother and me came from her strong DNA.

The past couple days have been Rough. A friend described Rough as "nothing time and a good night's sleep won't help." 
Thanks Friend. Thanks Grit.

2 comments:

  1. Hope the rough days get better. I like this post as I think I relate more to Grit than Resilience too.

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  2. H - yes they do - thank goodness. It is pretty interesting when you start looking into positive psychology and how different traits shape who you are ...

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