Goal Grit: Working Through The Challenges of Goal Achievement
The plate is full. There is no time. My schedule is overwhelming. Any, or all, of these could be the barriers you are facing for your current set of goals. There may not be an easy path out of this place, and ‘toughing it out’ may be the only way to advance. This is goal grit. Angela Duckworth has an excellent book on the subject. If you want the quick version, she also has a fascinating TEDTalk that provides some basic insight on what grit is. She defines it as Grit: the power of passion and perseverance.
The one place you would expect grit to be able to shine through is towards our own goals. Those are activities we should be passionate about, and want to persevere to achieve. If only it were that easy. There are ways you can enable and even strengthen your grit and mental toughness to help push through the toughest of moments and continue pursuing the outcomes you seek.
Make choices that take the extra step when it isn’t necessary. Push a little further to get that much closer to the outcome you’re looking for.
Your mind makes suggestions, it doesn’t give firm direction. You still get to choose whether you will take that suggestion or not. Your mind might suggest watching one more video on YouTube, or another episode of whatever show you are currently binging. That doesn’t mean that is what you have to do. You get to decide whether you watch, or get up and work on a next step, any step towards your goal.
Mental toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be worked to grow and develop.
As you build your goals, establish a set of small, quick actions that can be taken at any time to help work towards the achievement you are looking for. These can be used for activities to take when you need a little practice to get going. Even items not related specifically to your goal, can help you exercise your ‘grit muscle’. When you know you are struggling to work on anything, especially anything important, pull out your list of small steps you can take to get yourself in motion. I know that on some mornings I just don’t feel like doing my exercise routine. I do two things on those mornings. First, I remind myself how good I always feel after completing my exercise. And two, I simply say, ‘just get into the exercise room and change into your workout clothes.’ That’s it, let’s take that small step, and we’ll see how we feel. Then it leads to the next small step. And almost always thirty or forty minutes later I get off the treadmill and feel much better and ready to take on bigger things for the day.
Leaders with mental toughness and grit build better teams and realize more long-term success
You will have bad days. There will be challenges you face that feel insurmountable. And the only way to fail is to not try to move forward. Leaders define success for the moment, with a longer-term vision of the future. They don’t let the craziness of the moment, the short-term profit gains, or negative feedback become a barrier that prevents them from moving forward. We all need moments where we feel a little sorry for ourselves and wish it weren’t so hard, but the best leaders regroup and then know they can push forward. They connect with their team, their peers, or other support structures to talk through ideas of what the next steps might be to advance. Then they spring into action.
All of these apply to your personal and professional goals as well. We all hit walls with the progress we are making. Resistance is a force worth overcoming. Our goals are worth achieving. Digging deep for the grit inside, the mental toughness we all possess, will allow us to find the success we are looking for. And in doing so, we strengthen ourselves for the next time we find ourselves up against the goal achievement wall.
What next steps can you take to grit it out and move your goals forward?
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