How to Have True Grit

[Applause]

picture this

as i come across the finish line my

heart was pounding

my legs were screaming at me and no

breath seemed to have enough air

my body was made of up of lactic acid

and the voice

in the back of my head was starting to

ask why zack

why this sport but i knew there was no

turning back now

i had to face my fear of defeat and step

into the fire

pushing what i thought was my body’s

limit

but as i came closer and closer to the

finish line i realized that more and

more of my potential was revealed

and so i crossed that finish line faster

than ever before

this feeling of surpassing myself is

something i strive for every day and

what i believe many others do too

the feeling of not only proving others

wrong but proving myself wrong

whether it’s getting that great on a

test or starting a new hobby

people have always found redefining

their abilities a source of motivation

in life

or what they thought was impossible at

first

impossible has been redefined many times

it was done when the first sub 4 minute

mile was ran in 1954

or when mount everest the mountain that

seemed impossible to climb

was ascended in 1953

or even me standing in front of you

today

impossible has been redefined

good evening good evening my name is

zach

and i’m here today to motivate you to

redefine your impossible

now i’m not here to tell you to go out

and break world records or go to the

next olympics

but i’m here to remind you that you

achieve you

accomplish your goals in life and i

believe that the key ingredient to

accomplishing

your goals in life comes from grit

but what exactly is grit well grit

is the perseverance and passion for a

long-term goal

it’s the ability to keep moving despite

adversity

basically when things get hard you’re

going to need to work harder

angela duckworth the world’s leading

expert on grit state that grit

may be more important than iq or talent

in predicting success

so now that we know what grid is how do

we develop grit

well i believe that grit is a simple

three ingredient recipe

just like my morning toast you have the

bread

you have the peanut butter and you have

the banana

now although the ingredients to grit may

be harder to purchase once you get hold

of them

you are way more likely to achieve your

goals in life

so i believe that the first ingredient

to developing your grit

is finding an intrinsic motivation

i like to call this the eye of the

panther because a panther is fierce

proud and brave it is motivated to catch

its prey and will do so

you can imagine your goal as your prey

and you’ll need to be motivated

to catch it you need to believe in

yourself

because those that believe they can get

better realize

that efforts make them stronger you need

to set a long-term goal and find that

motivation to accomplish

it you need to make sure that this

motivation comes from within

because if you’re doing it for the money

you’re probably doing it wrong

lionel sanders a canadian triathlete is

a clear example of the importance and

power of finding that internal

motivation

as he went from a college drug addict he

wanted to change his life around

and found a goal of wanting to become

one of the best triathletes in the world

only five years later he was able to

accomplish this goal

his motivation comes from his motto no

limits in which he believes that if you

work for it

you can achieve whatever you set your

mind to

like lionel sanders believing in

yourself is a huge factor in resilience

believing that you can get to that

finish line will help you work for it

however

you must realize that this finish line

might not come today

and that this finish line might not come

tomorrow

and maybe one day you’ll start

understanding that there’s no such thing

as a finish line

but more like water stops along the way

where you get to fuel up

hydrate and keep moving through life

all right now that we’ve toasted our

bread we need to add our peanut butter

the second ingredient to increasing your

grit is to make sure that you’re

fulfilled with the right

surroundings you need to surround

yourself with people that believe in you

people the people that want the best out

of you and will motivate you to become

the person you want to become

however as we all know this often comes

with hard choices

but what we seem to forget is that our

behavior changes not only through

pressure

but also happens unconsciously in which

we tend to uphold the values of the

group we identify with even

when we aren’t around them this means

that it’s important

important to surround with yourself with

good people because they shape your

behavior

if we look at these two men i love this

picture edmund hillary and tenzing

norgay on top of the world for the first

time

when we look at this picture we tell

ourselves these guys have done it they

have climbed mount everest they have

reached the pinnacle of success

but let me tell you this expedition

wasn’t just two guys trying to reach the

top

no this involved a team

a team who believed they could bring

these two guys up there a team who

believed they could be the first and a

team who believed

they could achieve and that is what we

should all do we need to surround

ourselves with people that care about us

and want the best out of us

all right the third ingredient it’s

probably one of the most important

important ones it’s the one that makes

this peanut butter toast so good it’s

the banana

the third ingredient is finding a

purpose in what you are doing

this involves having dreams and goals to

motivate you and help you work for

things

it’s the fuel in your fire it’s

something beyond what you have done

or created it’s something that will get

you out of bed in the morning and tackle

these challenges every day

and go to bed satisfied but it’s also

about taking a step back

and understanding how what you are doing

helps contribute to the well-being of

others

because at the end of the day i believe

that we’re not here for ourselves

but rather for others if we look at this

man

bill gates multi-billionaire we all know

him he found a purpose in building one

of the biggest

softwares ever created microsoft however

he wanted to redefine its purpose and

create a different global development

dev development foundations in which he

donated 95

or 17 billion dollars of his income to

these charities

or greta thunder a seventeen climate

activist with a purpose

of motivating governments to act on

climate change

and all these people have different

purposes

so let me ask you what is your purpose

the third ingredient is often the

hardest one to find

it takes time it grows and it can

develop and it often changes

but it’s it’s important to acknowledge

that it’s there because the purpose

is what will bring you through the other

side at the end of a dark tunnel

it’s what will help you persevere to

those passions and those goals you want

to achieve

in this year in a pandemic where

everything seems to be uncertain it’s

important that we have our grit

that we persevere in challenging times

where we all socially distance where

we’re all wearing masks

we need to persevere and see this light

at the end of the tunnel and we can do

so by having grit

so to conclude my ted talk today i want

to remind you that you are capable of

achieving whatever you set your mind to

that you have no limit what you need to

remember

to find that internal motivation

surround yourself with great people

and find a purpose in what you’re doing

because greatness

is within all of us thank you