Busy Mom of two active boys, 44, Program Manager.
Favourite things: Coffee dates ☕️, Zumba 🎶 and playing in the park on hot summer days ☀️
To finalize my GRIT words, I decided to take a specific example of a time in the past that was particularly hard for me. I used it to ‘test’ my selection of words one by one to see how that resource specifically helped me. Then it became clearer: Gratitude, Responsibility, Insight and Thoughts resonated with me.
Gratitude – Often when I face a new obstacle or set back, my immediate reaction is to complain and say this is too hard. However, because I’ve done a lot of self-help work in the past, I’ve trained myself to say immediately, “Thank God, it could be worse”. I then try to look for the positives. I use Gratitude to remind myself of all the blessings I do have and how they can help me get through this challenge.
Responsibility – When I take responsibility for something, I empower myself to have some control over the outcome of the experience. I’ve realized that when I avoid responsibility, I essentially let the experience happen to me. I end up feeling helpless and live reactively, as opposed to living in a proactive mode. I can reduce my anxiety by knowing that I have the opportunity to take actions to get me through a hard time.
Insight – When I’m faced with a new challenge and I feel like I don’t have clarity, I look to draw on other people’s experiences. I know I can find someone or some knowledge to help me look at the situation from different angles. I fully trust that wisdom comes from experience and if some- one has gone through a similar situation, I know I can learn from them. Their insight might be extremely helpful or only a bit but, in any case, it’s more than I had before.
Thoughts – I’ve recently come to an understanding and true belief that one’s thoughts can be the strongest resource of all. I reference here the Brooke Castillo model (founder of The Life Coach School): Thoughts have power. Thoughts create our feelings. Feelings trigger our actions and actions create results. Because our brains are always working, and thoughts are always running through our minds, the outcome of experiences are determined by our thoughts. The most fortunate part of this truth is, as humans, we can have some control over our thoughts which means we can intentionally use them to our advantage. This concept aligns with my R for Responsibility. I feel confident and motivated to take on responsibility since I know my thoughts have power.
When I first saw the long list of G, R, I and T words, I was expecting it to be easy for me to determine the ones that I use most often when facing a challenge. On a scale of 1 (not easy) to 10 (very easy), I would choose 8 for perceived ease of selection. I was pleased that I didn’t have to brainstorm my own list from which to choose. I figured the greater number of words, the easier it would be! I had circled all the ones that were obvious to me but when I had to decide on the final four, it surprisingly became much harder. On a scale of 1 (not easy) to 10 (very easy), I would choose 4 for actual ease of selection. The whole process took me approximately 15 minutes.
Excerpts from Know, Grow and Show Your GRIT! Self-Discovery Made Simple (pg. 50-52)
Audio version available on March 13th!
