Martin Meadows - Grit: How to Keep Going When You Want to Give Up

GRIT

How to Keep Going
W hen You Want to Give Up

By Martin Meadows

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Extended table of contents is available at the end of the book.

If you browse through the interviews with some of the most successful people on Earth, youll find one common piece of advice sha red by virtually all of them :

They never give up on their big goals.

Research shows that grit is a better predictor for success than any other factor . The ability to keep going despite setbacks is more important than your IQ, char acter or other external factors like your upbringing or surroundings.

But what does it really mean to never give up ? What exactly is grit ? How do you persevere when faced with larger than life difficulties? How do you keep going when youre at the brink of exhaustion and all your hard work hasnt been rewarded yet ?

I wrote this book to explore the subject of persistence from a more scientific point of view than clich self-help sayings. I want to share with you how exactly to stick to your goals according to the peak performers and science not vague motivational advice that claims we have unlimited strength once were motivated enough.

By making it the goal of this book, I assume you already have a powerful motivation to work on your goals, yet you find yourself rapidly approaching the point of giving up. Together well explore how to push through obstacles and stay tough even when youve yet to get the taste of the reward youre after.

I supplement scientific advice with my personal experience in various areas such as fitness, business and learning new skills. Some of the things I achieved thanks to persistence include losing over 30 pounds in 12 weeks (and no, Ive never gained it back), creating several businesses, learning two foreign languages, and overcoming crippling shyness.

Well start with asking the most important question (nothing else matters if your answer to this question is no), and then proceed to seven chapters dedicated to various aspects of persistence. In the final chap ter, youll get advice from six other self-help authors to get different perspectives.

When you finish this book, youll possess a whole slew of tips and tricks to keep going when you want to give up. Youll understand which behaviors will threaten your goals and which one s will help you stay on course.

Last but not least, youll be ready to tackle challenges that would make an average person yell with frustration .

Grit serves you no purpose if youre performing the wrong action. Blind persistence sometimes holds you back from achieving your goals.

Bestselling author Seth Godin points out in his book The Dip: The Extraordinary Benefits of Knowing When to Quit (and When to Stick) that if youre not going to put in the effort to do your best, you might as well quit.

Consequently, the most important question you should ask yourself before you even start learning how to keep going is , Should I even keep going or should I give up? If you want to find the correct answer to this question, we first need to explore the concept of the dip a little bit more.

The graph below illustrates the concept of the dip:

When you start out, you enjoy a short-term period of rapid growth. You lose your first couple of pounds, you make your first sale, you say your first sentence in a foreign language, or you drive the first mile on a motorcycle.

After the initial gratifying period , things get harder. You no longer improve so quickly , or even wors e you feel stuck, unable to push through the obstacles.

In his book, Seth Godin says that if something is worth doing, theres probably a dip to experience. The dip creates scarcity, which in turn leads to exceptional value possessed by the few people who endure it.

The longer you endure the dip, the closer you are to success. Yet, most people who h ave found themselves in the dip give up before they can get out of it.

In some cases, they make the right decision . They save time and effort they would otherwise spend on something they shouldnt have been doing in the first place . In other cases, they throw away all the progress they have made so far.

How do you decide whether you should give up or keep going? There are several questions to ask.

Quitting in the dip usually seems like a bad idea (after all, youve already invested a lot of time and effort into doing something). However, we humans dont act as rationally as we think. P ersistence isnt always the answer to all your problems.

Before you skip this chapter and tell yourself you surely shouldnt quit, consider t he sunk cost fallacy. If you believe in a Dont waste philosophy (as most adults do), youre affected by this bias (but as studies point out , children are not ).

Lets say you went to the college, but one year later youre no longer motivated to keep going. The decision to quit would make more sense than forcing yourself to do something for which y ou no longer have enthusiasm . Yet, most people would consider the year spent studying too large of an investment to quit. They think of it as a waste of resources. E ven th ough staying at the college would lead to even more waste, many people would irrationally keep going.

Consequently, the first question you should ask yourself is whether you want to keep going just because of what youve already invested. If its your primary (or worse, sole) motivation, chances are youd be much better off quitting right now.

Seth Godin argues that if youre not invested enough to become the best in the world in what youre trying to achieve, you might as well quit. If youre settling for mediocrity, the decision to quit will benefit you more than merely trying to be okay at something.

Bestselling author and multimillionaire Richard Koch points out in his book Living the 80/20 Way that the key to success is to limit your focus to things that mirror your individuality. You cant be the best at everything, and persistence pays the biggest dividends when you focus on what youre truly best at.

Kochs and Godins approach is valid for people who want to achieve big career goals . However, it doesnt necessarily apply to smaller goals like learning a foreign language or learning a nother side skill where the objective isnt to become a world-class performer.

Before you quit because you realize you cant be the best in the world in what you want to achieve, ask yourself why youre doing it. Perhaps youll never become a proficient Spanish speaker, but your basic communication skills will suffice you enough to travel Spanish-speaking countries. If, on the other hand, your goal is to become surgeon, but youre not so fired up you want to become the best in the world, do yourself (and others) a favor and give up now.

The last thing to consider when making the decision to keep going or give up is to ask yourself if you still have enthusiasm both fo r the process and for the goal.