Growing up, I loved drawing.

So much so that I majored in Art for my first year of college.

But after a time, I burned out and had little hopes for a future in it, so I decided to change trajectory.

At the time, I thought I lost my passion for it.

When I look back, I can confidently say now that what I lacked was the grit to follow through on my passion.

I am now learning that to have passion, you have to have grit.

And this was my first first real clue as to how low on the "grit" scale I was.

I am reading a book now called ​"Grit"​ by Angela Duckworth.

Naturally, I would choose this book out of a billion in a bookstore:

I am a ​recovering lily-padder.​

I have a billion interests I want to pursue before I die.(Yet, if Duolingo didn't scream at me to practice every day, I wouldn't practice Italian.)

I have had to very consciously commit myself to the word "commit" for 2024. (Legit, the next step is getting it tattooed.)

I mean.... My ability to push through the nitty-gritty has historically been pretty low.

It doesn't help that my Libra Moon is a cardinal sign that gives me the emotional availability to start lots of stuff, but not the emotional bandwidth for the daily execution of it.

So here I am reading this book and it made me realize if you like something, but don't want to undergo the nitty gritty for it- Then it'll remain an interest.

But when you are willing to undergo the hard stuff to make that interest come to life?

THAT is passion.

Passion involves you doing the daily work every day, just because you love it.

That "shit sandwich" you've probably heard from ​Mark Manson​?

Following a passion involves eating the shit sandwich that comes with it every day.

If you want to further develop that interest, you HAVE to develop grit.

We often get so caught up in wanting to do something that we forget the basic pre-requisites.

We all have interests.

I think what we are lacking is the grit it takes to get those interests off the ground.

Whenever clients come to me talking about how they have interest after interest but no success in any of them, the underlying diagnosis is "low grit".

And honestly, if we all weren't so afraid of doing the nitty gritty that we know comes with developing an interest, I think more people would start to actually feel passion in their lives.

Grit is how you transform a dream into reality- I am not even kidding.

After 10 years of dabbling and having an interest in the spiritual, if I had not committed in 2024, I would not have a business.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

"Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint."

Coming from a chronic lily-padder, I've learned you can only develop grit by practicing it.

By doing the marathon.

By holding the same goal in place over a long period of time and working for it.

If you're like me, you've practiced using the other side of your brain that is really good at sprints.

You're good at choosing something, breezing through your discovery of it, and before you know it, you're onto the next thing.

Grit is that whole "you fall seven times and you stand up eight" quote.

Of course, we all know that behind not having grit, there is a subconscious motive.

Lily-padding (or sprinting) through life has allowed me to avoid falling.

That might resonate with some of you.

Subconsciously, if you don't commit, you don't have to work hard, and you don't have to risk disappointment, failure, or hardship.

Sprinting in today's society is common.

The Marathoner - The person with grit- is rare.

So, I challenge you to take a pen to the following questions:

• How do I feel about working long term towards one goal or interest?

• What does my track record say about how I work best? In sprints or marathons?

• Do I have any interests I can pursue deeply that I've been refraining from doing?

• What kind of work do I consider hard?

• What kind of hard work am I willing to give to my interest?

The pure fact is, it is hard to have a passion for anything when you give up on everything (speaking from experience).

Another sickening quote from this book:

“It soon became clear that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many different things.”

No more settling for being amateurs. <3