GRIT
What is Grit?
It comes in many names and in different forms but ultimately it is your ability to endure some level of stress and still create good work. That last bit is important, just getting through something stressful (while important) is not enough to qualify as grit. You have to achieve something through that adversity.
Why is it important?
Well, if I am honest (which I rarely am) life does have a tendency to throw HUGE quantities of shit into my cup of tea and without some ability to process and work through this I would get nothing done. I would be in bed most days just waiting for death. Grit, allows me to get up and achieve something when I don’t feel like it. More over, a lot of creative work can be problem-solving and if I gave up at the first hint of a problem I would get nothing done, ever.
Now, it needs to be said that this attitude is not a magic cure-all. Depression, for example, can be crippling and no amount of wishful thinking about our attitude to life will change this. Depression requires a different set of tools (some times drugs too) to tackle and I won’t be covering that in this blog.
When is Grit needed
As odd a question as this is, it’s actually really important. Never is it at the beginning or end of a project that things tend to stall. It is often the messy middle part that people give up. Excitment and passion can drive people forward at the begining. So too as you near the end of a project there is that excitment for a finished product and the feeling of accomplishment. It’s the middle that gets people. Often because the reality of what is required for the project and the compromises start to happen around here can, frankly, royaly fuck any level of enthusiasm. You know what I mean, emails, schedules, spreadsheet, etc… office workers often refer to this as the ‘bull shit’. It is at this point that grit helps you through the middle and onto the end.
Mental vs Physical grit.
The first point about this, you can train for both. Physical stamina is the most obvious one but if someone told me I have mental grit I would assume they are insulting me!
Your mental faculties are trained by doing tasks that are challenging and require a solution to be created. When you come across another problem you then draw on the previous solution for help. It might not work the same way but maybe it could be adapted for this problem. The more solutions you know the easier solving these problems get and the faster you get through the 'bull shit’.
Weirdly, it takes more physical effort than mental effort to feel drained. Seems using this rather large organ in our heads for long periods of time can actually be tiring.
A heads up on that last point, busy is the new stupid. Use your resource wisely because if you don’t…
The real risk of BURNOUT
The most poetic definition of burnout appears in the ICD-10, the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Disease, which characterises it as “a state of vital exhaustion” The symptoms include but are not limited to:-
- Chronic fatigue. In the early stages, you may feel a lack of energy and feel tired most days. …
- Insomnia. …
- Forgetfulness/impaired concentration and attention. …
- Physical symptoms. …
- Increased illness. …
- Loss of appetite. …
- Anxiety. …
- Depression.
- Anger
*thanks Google
Ways to avoid it:-
1) Basic admin - eat, sleep, drinking water.
2)Find and do things that relax you. If you can’t remember any then FIND SOME! NOW! No, not in 10 mins or after you have finished your work. NOW!!
3) Say no. No is a spectacularly powerful word. It can stop small anything from irritations to great tragedies. It also can stop your work load being unmanagable.
Say no to others from time to time. Say Yes to yourself.
4)Did I mention eating? Good. Here it is again along with some Army wisdom:- “Shit in, shit out” Eating shit? Then expect to feel and produce shit.
So how do you maintain your grit? What do you do to make to deal with the day to day BS and still produce good work. Know any better ways for fending off burnout. Please let me know.
Be polite
be efficient
Have a plan to shoot everyone you meet.