Failure is Not a Permanent Condition (develop grit)

byAlexEvans

11.9K followers

5 years ago

We hear it said " that the only way to fail is to give up " and that can be a weekly occurrence when we start anything new.

Hey, we are all human at this stage.

I was reflecting when I first started my WA journey. You roll through the front doors and stand in the reception; it is an assault on your senses.

I must admit I was awestruck when looking at the member's, they just seemed to know so much, worked seamlessly, and appeared to be mega-successful.

" Got to get me some of that action "

I was convinced that if I could learn the material and worked hard and long enough, I would get there.

Through the journey, our motivation can wax and wane. It is only natural; every day, we can be confronted with many questions. The answers are not always that apparent and searching we must go.

Moreover, who's going to earn the most money? Who is going to last the distance? Who will create that website with insane amounts of traffic? Who will develop that unique space in the online world?

On reflection, one characteristic has emerged as a significant predictor of success. Furthermore, it wasn't, talent, the ability to create content from the outset, social intelligence or presence, age, gender, the ability to take incredible selfies, your physical health, and it is not your IQ.

It was grit.

My views on grit were founded from doing Karate, so many people would come the ultimate goal was to achieve a black belt, of the 100 students that started maybe one would make it. Affiliate marketing is much the same.

Grit is the determination to go after very long-term goals.

You have to have stamina. It can be about focusing on your future while working on today. To do that we need to work day in, day out, not just for the week. Not for a month. We need to adopt a long term view; we need to work it consistently.

I have come to learn that talent doesn't make you gritty. From observation, many talented individuals do not follow through to achieve their goals and aspirations. Talent can get us so far, it takes grit to see the many projects through, and that extends to all aspects of life.

The best idea I've heard about for building grit is something called the "growth mindset." An understanding that the ability to learn is not fixed; it can change with the amount of effort we put in. You would have to agree that coming to WA and embarking on the challenge of learning affiliate marketing; we are rewiring our brains. It is incredible how our perspectives change and grow in response to the challenge.

From observation, we can see success all around us and understand that if we follow through, we too can achieve. Having that knowledge, we are much more likely to persevere, even when we fail or fall short of our expectations because we don't believe that failure is a permanent condition.

That is the growth mindset in action.

It is a great idea for building grit. However, we need more; that's the work that stands before us every day. We need to take our best ideas, thoughts, intentions, and our strongest intuitions, and we need to test and apply them. It can be hard to look inside, to measure whether we've been successful, in terms of our experiences. We have many bridges to cross, we have to be willing to fail, to be wrong and to except that this can be the case.

The most significant bridge is the desire and motivation to start over again with lessons we have learned.

Long story short, we need to be gritty about making our affiliate marketing endeavors grittier.

What are your thoughts on developing real grit and determination?

Thanks for reading.

Alex Evans