In a furious world full of snowflakes, we need strong men and women who don’t melt at the first thought of heat. We need to teach our children, our teams and our people to rise to the occasion and stop dropping our heads and evaporating when life doesn’t go their way.

We need to teach our kids, our teams, our people and ourselves one word above all others today: Grit.

Grit is being tough when you feel weak. 

Grit is both your ability to step into adversity and stand up under it. Grit is where your energy meets adversity. Call it perseverance. Call it endurance. Grit is where courage rejects fear. Grit is the place your heart grows stronger than your sight, your strength and your mind. Toughness and single-mindedness define the one who is filled with grit. In a world where weakness is being modeled and praised, we need a movement to bring grit back!

Grit leaves a legacy. But you will never leave a legacy until you first leave a mark. Most people today, because they don’t have grit, just simply leave altogether.

Sandpaper has grit. Sandpaper leaves it’s mark. Construction paper is colorful and makes all kind of cute dioramas, but leaves no lasting mark on its environment. The first storm and construction paper turns into destruction paper—a wet, weak mess. People without grit are like construction paper – colorful, but impotent. Sandpaper on the other hand is strong and makes an impression when rubbed.

Have you ever rubbed construction paper?

Construction paper can’t stand up to the pressure. Because, construction paper has a weak constitution. You, literally, can rub a hole right through it. But, sandpaper is made of a different constitution. Part paper, part glue and all grit (sand grains) makes sandpaper a formidable force for any surface.

Grit makes you formidable. We live in a pressure packed world. But, those with grit can handle the pressure. Grit allows gives you the determination to be undeterred. The world wants to crush you. Seriously, nothing in the world improves itself. It all decays. All the forces of this world will pull you down. We used to have men and women who fought for things and built things. Now, we just have people who want to be given things.

No one can give you grit. You get grit by setting your face like flint to hard things, clenching your teeth and taking one step at a time. Grit takes no shortcuts and keeps you in it for the long haul.

Grit makes sparks in your soul. The reason there are so many passionless people is they are looking for a passion instead of looking for grit. Grit says, “Give me the hard way.” But, no one wants hard things anymore. Our world’s mantra is “make it easy and make it sweet.” You will never learn grit that way. The grit gets sucked out of you and you become the wrapping paper instead of the construction paper.

Grit goes to work. Listen, life is not fair. Stop wishing it was your version of fair and just get to work. And once you get to work, keep working. I see so many young people without grit, without stick-to-it-ness. When they don’t get what they want. They quit.

Grit don’t quit.

Life is not going to go your way all of the time, in fact, most of the time. And life, certainly, isn’t easy. So, when life doesn’t go your way, you suck it up and go to work. This is grit. And grit is only learned as you work hard. Because, grit can only be learned as you work hard. You can’t learn grit playing video games or watching videos on the internet. You can’t learn grit by letting someone else fight your battles. You can’t learn grit by reading social media posts or listening to popular pundits. You can’t learn grit from having a mentor or getting feedback. You can’t learn grit from running from your problems. You can’t learn grit by hiding from adversity.

You learn grit when you don’t quit. We have a world full of quitters today. They call it “advancement” or “leaving for the next opportunity.” But, too many people leave too early, simply because they don’t have the mental, emotional or even physical fortitude to suffer through one fruitless season into a more fruitful one.

“Over time grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimless ones.”
~John Ortberg

Grit is a divider. It divides the morally strong from the morally bankrupt. It separates the winners from the losers. It separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls. Grit puts it’s big boy and big girl pants on and gets to work. Grit is the line between those who stay and those who just want out. Grit is the line between those who absorb the pressure and  those whine to get their own way and escape the pressure. Information will never make you stronger, but straining under hard things will always make you stronger.

Get some grit and get to work. Those with grit will outlast and out-perform those without it.

Grit means “getting results in-spite of trials.”

(C) Alex Vann, 2018

*Special thanks to my iron, my friend and eldest sibling, Aaron, for a discussion about grit that gave me this week’s word.