“The number one predictor of success is not intelligence, not good looks, not health, but grit.”
This week, I re-listened to the famous TED talk by Angela Duckworth, psychologist and author of the book Grit. In it she shares her research the number one predictor of success. She goes on to say, “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” But at the end, admits that we don’t know what cultivates grit, why some people have it and others don’t and what makes some gritter than others.
This week on the HealthBite podcast, I share the stories of 2 patients one gritty, one not as much (at least not yet) and share some of the strategies that made them successful in their long term health goals. I have found, time and time again, these strategies to be effective in helping us successfully achieve our goals whether we are talking about our health goals or our life goals.
1️⃣ Breathe. When a goal feels too big or insurmountable, pause and take a deep breath. Ask yourself how overwhelm gets in the way of your success. Can you detach yourself from the outcome? That might seem counterintuitive, but trust me, a little bit of faith and surrender and distance can go a long way in managing your overwhelm so you can put your bandwidth and energy in doing the work before you.
2️⃣ Do One Thing Better than Yesterday. We think that we need to do all the things at once in order to achieve success. In fact the opposite is true. When we try and do too much at the same time, our efforts are usually short-lived. So think of just one thing you can do today that is better than yesterday. And just one more thing the day after and just one more thing the day after that.
3️⃣ Small Steps and Small Wins. Every big goal has multiple little steps, the first 5 pounds, the first page of the manuscript, the first course towards learning something new. Break up the big insurmountable goal into little steps AND (this part is critical) celebrate your successes when you achieve them. Celebrating you and taking joy in the process is fun and a brain hack that helps build intrinsic motivation. And finally, and this one thing I believe is most important and essential to all of the above….
4️⃣ Embrace self acceptance and self compassion. Accept yourself where you are right now. This is a must, not only because it is the nice thing to do, but it is the effective thing to do. There is a moundful of data that has shown self acceptance is critical to successful habit change and to goal attainment.
You cannot get to where you want to be by hating who you are and where you are right now. As Angela Duckworth said, success is dependent on grit. We don’t really know what exactly builds grittiness. But we do know this. These strategies are essential to habit change as my patients demonstrated this week. So, what is the one thing that you are trying to accomplish or a change you wish to make? Maybe it is a professional goal, maybe it is a home renovation, maybe it is a health goal or habit? Where do you need to cultivate grittiness in your life? And can you do it with the self acceptance and compassion necessary to do so? Wishing you success in all your endeavors!
