It seems like everyone knows that grit is perseverance and working hard. I’ve talked to a person who said that grit is like the grit on sandpaper, it’s rough to refine you.
But one thing I never hear about grit is that another characteristic is loyalty.
What does loyalty mean when it comes to grit? It means sticking with something not even when it isn’t easy, you’re sticking with it because you either love what you do or you need to finish it.
Angela Duckworth, the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance said this about loyalty within grit, “It’s doing what you love, but not just falling in love- staying in love. (54)”
She noticed in her research that there were people in this military camp who would sometimes stay and other times they would quit and go home. She noticed that those who not only worked hard but stayed throughout the good and the bad made it to graduation.
There have been many times when I have given up. I have noticed recently that the more I grow up, the more that I want to finish the projects that I start.
I think this is partly to me being able to find what I am passionate about and that I have decided to stay loyal to them.
I can’t remember all the things that I have accomplished in the past year but I do know that in the past month, I have become a gritter person by studying grit.
This past weekend was general conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In the past, I have slept through most of the sessions and I never really made it up by reading the talks later.
This weekend, I decided that I wanted to stay awake for a full day and take notes about what the speakers were saying.
I remember what I had been learning about grit and about staying loyal to my goals and my passions. It was because of this that I stayed true to what I wanted to do and I ended up having the best conference that I have ever had.
If I could suggest anything to you about grit it would be this, study it.
I don’t say this often, but I feel that when we study grit, we find things that relate to us and make us better. It stays in our heads.
Grit is so important in our lives. Please study what grit means to you and how you can apply it in your life.
Who knows, maybe you can follow through with some of your passions that you’ve longed to finish.
