The secret to success and outstanding achievement in life isn’t about being a “genius”. It’s about your GRIT or the unique combination of your passion, purpose, and long-term perseverance. According to Dr. Angela Duckworth, the world’s leading expert on grit, GRIT is having PASSION + SUSTAINED PERSEVERANCE when it comes to achieving long-term goals.
For every ending in our lives, there is a new beginning. Rather than focus on the events and experiences of the past, I choose to focus on all the good and great things God has planned for my future.
I’m happy to say I achieved most of my goals this year. But I also failed at a few too. All because I failed to create a clear plan of action. And because my actions weren’t planned, systemized, routinized or even verbalized, my goals didn’t materialize.
One of the things I learned late in life is that a life lived without vision leads to a life without direction, passion, purpose or significance.
🙋🏽♀️I decided to stop trying to control my destiny through my actions. My choices. My decisions. My planning.
🙋🏽♀️I decided to stop chasing purpose…..
Not too long ago, I was telling a friend how much I had grown over the past 3 years and she wanted to know my secret. So I simply said, “pain and pressure.” I think most of us want to grow personally AND professionally but we wouldn’t dare ask for more pain and pressure to be added to our lives right?
11 years ago on May 1st, I lost my mother to ovarian cancer. She had battled the disease for 3 years and died a few weeks after her 49th birthday. I remember my mother saying during her last few weeks of life that she had to get better because she still had a purpose to fulfill on this earth. When I heard these words, I remember saying in my heart:
“I don’t want to arrive at the end of my life believing I have yet to fulfill my God-given purpose. I want to be able to say with confidence that I have fulfilled it.”
Have you ever wondered why we (especially women) are so apologetic? Were we born this way or were we socialized this way? Maybe it’s not either/or but both/and. Do you feel like you always need to apologize for who you are or the decisions you make?