The Olympic Games: Where grit comes to life (and thank you Tatjana!)

• This portion was not part of the original article, but there is no way we can’t mention it. In case you missed it, Tatjana Schoenmaker set a new world record on her way to taking gold in the 200m breaststroke event at 3:45 this morning. If you haven’t seen the race yet, you can watch it here. Thank you for inspiring our nation Tatjana, we salute you!

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are in full swing (a year late, for obvious reasons). More than 11 000 athletes from around the globe are competing for at least 1017 medals across 41 sports in 339 different events. Hend Zaza, the Syrian table tennis player is the youngest athlete at 12 years old, while Mary Hannah the Australian equestrian is the oldest at 66. Excellence truly knows no limits.

It is fascinating and inspiring to witness people from countries you can’t find on a map, competing in sporting codes you might not even know exists. Although you might not understand the rules of every event or code, you immediately become acutely aware of one thing – these athletes are exceptional. They are masters of their craft.

How did they get to be so good? Surely, they were born with the perfect genetic composition, talent, opportunities, and star sign?

In some cases, possibly, but most of them are normal people like you and me. The crucial difference is this: they’ve got bucket loads of grit. Grit is defined by Angela Duckworth as “the perseverance and passion to pursue long term goals.” Passion is crucial – you need to absolutely love what you do (most of the time) if you are going to do it exceptionally well for a long time. Perseverance is equally important – you are going to spend more time honing your skill than “normal” people are willing to. Having only one of these characteristics is not enough – becoming a master at what you do requires both a deep love for your area of focus, as well as a willingness to put in more effort than anybody else.

There is great news in this for the rest of us “ordinary” people: grit can be developed; it is not something you are merely born with or without. Anybody can improve significantly in a chosen field if they care passionately about it and are willing to put in the necessary work, for a long time.

Professor Duckworth shares four steps to developing your grit:

1. Expose yourself to many areas of interest, activities, or endeavors to see what you could be passionate about. Try many new things.

2. Once you find one you enjoy a lot, you start putting in the hours of practice to develop your abilities. Make it purposeful and deliberate. Get a coach, teacher, or expert to help you. Put in the time and wait for the progress to start showing.

3. Link this activity or endeavor to your purpose in life. You start doing something because its fun, but you keep doing it for reasons bigger than your pleasure. You use it as a vehicle to change the world.

4. And in doing so, you create hope for a better future in yourself and those around you.

These athletes know full well that not all of them will win a medal – the math proves that. Some of them come to the Games with medal aspirations, but for many the prize greatest reward is the honour of calling yourself an Olympian.

But, you might ask, what does this have to do with me? I didn’t know the Olympics were on and don’t even like sport.

Grit matters in all domains. To become a master at whatever you do, you need to find something you care deeply about and train your mind and or body to become exceptional at it for a long time. You might not have the aspirations to become world-class and that is completely acceptable. But if you are going to have a chance of becoming the best version of yourself, you’re going to need grit. And knowing that you gave it your all is something nobody will ever be able to take away from you.

The Takeaway

At PurposeWorks we are “ordinary” people that love helping other “ordinary” people tap into their potential and grow. We offer, among other services, individualized coaching to help you unlock that potential. If you are interested in taking a step forward in your life, get in touch at info@purposeworks.co.za

Thank you for reading. Our sincere hope is that the content we share enables you to see things in a fresh and insightful way, so you can go challenge ordinary.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.