March 30, 2016

If there is one thing that adds fulfillment to our lives, it is the feeling of being great at what we set out to do. Unfortunately all of our dreams seem to be like car mirrors in reverse: “Objects in are further than they appear!”

For any dream, for any great idea, there is a chasm between the beginning, and the end. Whether you can see it from the start, or not, it will be there. The reason so many people fail in what they set out to do is, because they can’t see a way across. But there is always a bridge, if you know how to build it.

Building the Bridge

Bridging the gap between struggling and success involves 3 tools: practice, grit, and fun. Ignoring any of the three, is the cause of most people’s failures.

Practice

So you saw this one coming right? To get from bad to great, always and every time, takes practice. 10,000 hours, according to Malcomb Gladwell, of good hard practice. Talent (a lot of it!) may take you to good, but only practice will get you to great!

Luckily this is the tool that we can usually get on board with. We understand that going after something new is going to take some work, and practice. So we start. We begin the practicing. We do the work that need done to start learning.

And the something happens. We stop practicing. We stall out. We lose our direction. Boredom over takes us. The journey is difficult. The struggle is too frustrating. We want to be good, and well we just arn’t.

Not yet.

But for a lot of people it turns into ‘not ever,’ because this is where they stall out. They stop.

It can all be avoided though. You are going to avoid it. Because you have two more tools up your sleeve.

Grit

Grit. Determination. Vision. Motivation. Whatever you call it, this is one of the two tools that hold our practice habits in one piece.

Grit is the thing that keeps us going when we don’t want to. It’s like bullying ourselves into doing the work we don’t want to do for a goal we want more. It is the piece of us that can already see the greatness at the end.

Without grit, you will give up. You are going to see the chasm, and decide that walk back seems pretty nice after all.

However, grit is in you, even if you need to look for it.

Focus on the end. Focus on why you are doing what you are doing. Spend your free moments envisioning your goal. This isn’t some “law of attraction” bit, this is you reminding yourself why you really want.

Then pretend their is no path back, whether there is or not. Put your back against the wall, and you will fight. In pharmacy school whenever I became overwhelmed I reminded myself there was no fall back plan. I had 4 or 5 years of classes. No Associates Degree, no Bachelors Degree, a bunch of credits in classes that probably wouldn’t transfer well, and a significant amount of debt. Forward was the only direction.

Finally, when in doubt there’s always music, and youtube. I love using either to get me pumped. Here’s somewhere to start.

Fun

The thing is even that won’t get us all the way there. The amount of resolve that it would take alone is superhuman. The focus, is tunnel vision. I don’t believe any amount of grit will keep your practice together by itself.

We need to enjoy the journey.

For every dream, the journey (your practice) is going to take up the majority of the time spent on it. We have to learn to enjoy the ride, and the destination.

Start by having fun with it. Be goofy. Play around with it. Find a way to make it enjoyable.

Don’t ever take it too, too, serious.

Take time to get to know, and have fun with the people you work with. Take time to play around with your project instead of just going through the motions. Enjoy the process of learning, of getting better.

Other wise it won’t work. You will decide it’s not worth it. You need to have fun with life!

Put It All Together

So that’s the plan. That’s the way to build a bridge between struggling and success.

Practice… a lot. And use grit, and fun to hold it all together. Girt for the times you don’t want to keep going, and fun to lessen the amount of grit required.

It’s still going to be difficult. However, if it’s really something you want- you’ll build the bridge over that chasm.

I believe in you!

-Michael Speck