She seemed nervous. When I asked Brynn if I could interview her, she didn’t know what for, she didn’t even know why I wanted to interview her or what it would be used for. I was nervous too. I didn’t know what was going to happen in the article and this was my first time doing a project so big. Courage was something so easily explainable and yet I had a tendency to ask the hard questions. Even though this was the case, she explained courage as understanding consequences and yet doing it anyway. She referred to Brene Brown, a researcher who studies shame, courage, and vulnerability. Brynn said that…
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You Are Going to Fail
Grit is not something that is used in normal conversation. When you are talking to a person, you don’t say that they were gritty. Instead, you say they were hard-working and that they persevered despite challenges. No one talks about failure. Until I asked Niel what he thought grit was. At first, when I asked him what he thought grit was, he answered the same answer I have heard for the past two weeks. “Well, I think it’s probably more mental than physical. It’s related to determination or toughness,” he said. “Just keep hanging in there and keep fighting and keep plugging away.” Niel then started to talk about failure.…
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What You Don’t Know About Grit
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…
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Talent Doesn’t Mean Everything
When I was little, I tried different hobbies to see if I liked them or not. I tried ballet, tap, soccer, and soon I realized that I didn’t like any of them or rather I wasn’t good at any of them. I got frustrated with myself and I quit. The reason why was because I didn’t think that I was naturally good at it, I didn’t have any naturally talent. Natural talent isn’t all that it seems though. Recently, I have been reading Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. In the book, she says, “Without effort, your talent is nothing more than unmet potential. Without effort,…
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How to Use Confidence to Stand Out
Brittany is my older sister. She is two years older than me and is the most confident person I know. She is also the bravest. About a month ago, she and her husband moved from Utah to Tennessee. She moved there in order to complete her education in occupational therapy. Moving wasn’t an easy thing for her. She had no idea what anything was going to be like. “You couldn’t see the neighborhood,” Brittany said. “We were living in a different culture and I didn’t know what people were going to be like.” But even though she was afraid, she moved anyway. “I had fears and anxieties but I knew…
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Three Ways to Help Others Find Motivation
Finding motivation in yourself is hard. We make dreams and goals of who we want to be and sometimes it can be hard to remind ourselves of those dreams. It is important to have people in our lives who can remind us of that and help to motivate us. How can we do that for others? It may seem like a hopeless task but I have narrowed it down to three points. Help them find passion in the small things When I was in junior high/high school my mom found it hard to motivate me to do homework so I could succeed. We tried everything from to-do lists to rewarding…
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You Are Not Alone in Motivation
I have always wondered how people can motivate themselves to exercise. When I exercise, it feels good for a moment and then I feel like death has personally invited me to die. Some people find their own motivation to complete spartan races and others find help in the people around them. The latter was the case for Brittanee. Brittanee is a mother of three and loves to build things. She says that while she is a mess in the kitchen, her friends rely on her to help them build and create. She also recently completed a spartan race. A spartan race is like a military obstacle race. It has many…
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How to Bring Back Lost Motivation
I am afraid of failure. This is not something I am proud of and it stops me from starting projects that I want to do. I will procrastinate even the simple things so I won’t have to look failure in the face. Failure is something that can take our motivation and throw it into the trash if we are not careful. So, the question is how can we keep our motivation up after we have suffered a setback? The answer is in a book that I am currently reading. It’s called “The Fighter’s Mind” by Sam Sheridan. In one of his chapters, he interviews Freddie Roach who is a former…
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Why We Need Teachers
I have always had a respect for teachers. They gain new students every year, go through the pain of trying to help them to learn, and yet they still call their students “their kids”. With all that I know of teachers, I really wanted to interview a teacher. As it so happens, my roommate, Julia, is a music education major. When I was thinking of who I would interview for the month, I asked her what she thought about education and when she answered, I knew that I had to ask her to be my interviewee. I first asked her why she chose to be a teacher. She said, “I…
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How to Create a Love of Learning
I hope that you have been enjoying this month’s topic about learning. I realize that I am not writing a long post today and that is probably because I have started writing my posts for July. I decided to do something that I have never done before for that month so this post will be shorter but I do have important information that I have compiled. I hope you enjoy. I have been in school for a long time. I have many ups, and many downs. Throughout that whole time, I have loved the idea of learning. I sometimes wonder if there are others who love learning as much as…
