True Grit
Every great writer knows the key to great writing is the profoundly simple…keep writing. Those expecting some deep trade secret are deeply disappointed to find there is no silver bullet. Creatives are simply people who keep creating. Who don’t give up.
They keep doing whatever it is they do. Not that they are particularly proficient at it. They simply have found the discipline to keep doing it. Day in and day out, they do it. [Eventually the rest of the world catches up to their tenacity, seeing in it vindication.]
To have this measure of focus one has to root out everything that distracts. They have to fight hard to make doing their creative work normal and consistent. That’s why creators are fighters. They have learned to fight off and kick out distractions.
They know what’s at stake, and how many things will come against the daily habit of committing to something. The average person simply will not have the will power to stick it out. Are you the average person? Or…
Do you have the courage to do the mundane things necessary to get something off the ground? 90% of the work is Simple. Daily. Routine stuff that simply needs to get done. Little steps, one by one by one. Sooner than later, the ball is rolling up the hill.
Leaders know this secret: if you push long enough, eventually you will get to the top of the hill. You can’t go up forever (even though sometimes it feels like it). And the ride down is so worth it. There’s nothing like it!
But most quit right there. Just before they experience the fruits of their labor, they stop. They leave their seedling idea alone and exposed, without the proper care to flourish.
Do I have what it takes? (this is the real question we are asking , isn’t it?) The question tacitly assumes there is some magic formula successful people have. They have some God or culturally-given qualities we don’t have. Wrong!
Success is actually a matter of rather boring insignificance. Do I do the things day in and day out that prove the sincerity of my love? Do I actually do the activities? Do I honestly evaluate and take the next steps, however small? Do I keep pushing?
It sounds like will power, or working harder than everyone else. Not really. It is not exclusively a work-ethic issue. It is more akin to what might be called “grit” — the determination to keep going daily in a certain direction, even in the face of adversity.
Grit embraces the conflicts necessary, it does not try to resolve them. No matter what things come up, it is not looking for cheap vindication. Adversity is not a “sign” to quit. It is reason to dig in, to set ones face like a flint (to borrow the Hebrew prophet Isaiah’s phrase).
Grit sees challenges as supporting evidence, a chance to proof our vision.
It is focus. Clarity. Resolute determination. The mindfulness to listen to our life. Reason to address the deep longings inside us. To interpret and unlock them.
That is our life’s work. And it will take grit. This is the ultimate call of the creative. Will you answer?
