Grit is literally embedded in integrity. Grit is a personal growth buzzword. Wellness too is a buzzword, along with mindfulness, accountability, ownership, etc. All the things this blog is essentially about. When words become buzzwords, their meanings get watered down and are more easily dismissed as being an attempt at altruism, because they often become more about someone trying to prove their selflessness. This approach can veil the arrogance or the insecurity of the author and the intention. Creating content for the sake of monitoring clicks and followers. I acknowledge the irony as I will shortly post this on social media. With this acknowledgment, I will no longer request others to share and follow. I will notify of its release, and let it live. My intention was to make this blog to create accountability in my life. It wasn’t about gaining an audience so much as it was about making a promise to myself to write more, because when I commit to making something public, I am more likely to follow through. I also know that when I follow my morning routine, I have more productive days, which helps me be a better version of myself. That said, I still statistically fail more than I succeed each and every day. I can be a better father, a better husband, a better son, a better co-worker, a better neighbor, a better musician, etc. The first is most important to me. I have a tween daughter, and I’m not handling this stage of her development well. I realize that I am in some mourning cycle over losing my little companion. My mini-me is blossoming into an independent young woman and I’m not processing that reality to the best of my ability.
I’ve also already broken my cardinal rule in today’s blog as I also wanted to refrain from speaking in the first person. The only reason I am doing so today is because I noticed the beginning of my ego coming into the fold. I was checking Instagram far too often to see if anyone had liked or followed what I had posted. After only six posts, I was already more focused on the possibility of external reward more than internal purpose. I had to check myself.
Back to the topic of grit and the watering down of words. What if we stripped them all away? Took all the words, subtracted them from our experiences. How would we know how to describe who or what we are? Without language, where would we turn to find ways to express how we feel? We we would turn to nature and wildlife. Though undefined, we would still be able to connect to emotion through our senses. We sense emotion. These things don’t need to be intellectualized. We don’t need poetry, iambic pentameter, fancy vocabulary or grammar; we just need to experience life and feel what we get from it. Grit comes into play because it’s essentially how we choose to react to our experiences, and that choice is to move forward…always! At an early age, you can choose to be afraid of life and never leave your home. You may “live” to be 100 years old by doing so, but it can be argued that you merely existed for 100 years, but never lived. Every experience would be vicarious, either through TV, movies, books, or looking out the window. Grit has synonyms and can be defined, but grit, along with other personal growth buzzwords, transcends definition. Grit is the constant state of getting there. Grit doesn’t care about being right or being true. Grit doesn’t mean not quitting; it means knowing the difference between how long to hold on and when to let go. Grit is surviving for survival’s sake, because it’s always about what happens next! Grit has no destination and no endpoint.
The Constant State...of Getting There 