Zoe McKey - Build Grit: How to Grow Guts, Develop Willpower, and Never Give Up: Strength of Character Manual

This book is not about what will happen after your big goals are reached. Thats the happily ever after. This is the road that will lead you there. It doesnt go down the highway of your happy ending, but handles all those curvy, sneaky, bumpy passages life flings in front of you all of a sudden when they are least expected. Optimally, when people are heading towards a goal, they are more or less aware of what the potential main issues might be, so preparations can be made to avoid them.

BUILD GRIT is a book that arms you against those unexpected events. It foreshadows the kind of incidents that can disturb your well-prepared plan and teaches you how to react quickly and efficiently to them.

This book offers the advantage to not only learn and acquire crisis management techniques but also a broader perspective of the unexpected difficulties people encounter in everyday life. These kinds of problems can be put on a "potential threats" list, and a complex defensive mechanism can be established. Overcoming a difficulty can be done much faster if you know the right answers. Primary life goals can be achieved much quicker if you do not invest time and unnecessary anxiety in solving everyday problems.

Trust me; I am not sitting at a luxurious table, blabbing on my newest MacBook. I didnt grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. After my relatively peaceful early years, I went through a lot of adversity and personally learned all these lessons the hard way.

When I was seven, my mother became gravely ill. By the time I was nine, my family had lost all their fortune. At fourteen, I found myself alone in a foreign country, and the only thing I could count on was my parents love from a distance of 500 miles. From that day on, I had to deal with everything alone. And when I say everything, I mean it.

But I knew what I wanted, which direction to follow, and I tried to calculate the possible pitfalls. Even so, despite my efforts, I encountered new challenges. I wasnt born omniscient, so I fell into some traps again and again. It was infuriating, and I didnt understand why they kept happening. I think we all know that overwhelming feeling of helplessness when the only option would be to scream as loud as possible (without being taken away in a straitjacket).

When unfair events happen, people tend to think they are entitled to more lenient treatment from others. For example, if you have to stand in a long line at the post office, you expect that fate should be gentler with the next challenge; namely, catching the bus. If this doesnt occur, you become even angrier and more frustrated. Then you go shopping with a bad attitude, roaring at the salesperson, who rewards you with the oldest, ugliest ham. When you return home and notice it, you start spitting hellfire on life, on Fortuna, on everything.

In the meantime, you realize the day is almost gone, and you are overwrought because of all the nonsensical stress you put yourself through. You wont be able to work on the project or thesis or whichever task is on your goal highway.

The entire day was spent deflecting onto side roads. You go to bed with the thought that tomorrow will be different or the usual starting tomorrow Familiar? But as it happens, the next day you are abruptly awakened half an hour earlier than expected by the neighbors coffee machine and it makes you annoyed. Here we go again.

Yet I couldnt take time to wallow in thoughts of why me because my money and food supplies were running out quickly. Back then buses and post offices were the least of my concerns. But big problems, small problemsthe devil is in the details.

On the third day, I decided to stop fighting against my fate. I hushed my inner voice that asked why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve it? I changed the questions.

What can I do to optimize my situation? How can I survive this period?