I’m concerned that my daughter won’t do well in life. Why? Tenacity.
Tenacity is what separates the successful from the naturally gifted.
Having a high IQ should be a good thing. It can be, but it can make a person (potentially) very lazy. For instance, it can make you try less. So, why work hard at school (to learn new things), if the grade come easy?
A lack of struggle will hold actually us back from achieving success in the future.
Smarts can mean that when you run into a problem you quits because you hate the feeling of struggling.
The only way to get into a practice of being tenacious is to make sure that some things are fought for.
We will want to take short cuts. We want to skip the work. But, we can’t.
It’s about dogged tenacity!
That’s what I’ve been striving for with doggedly promoting my book about dogs and how having them makes a big difference in ways I never realized. In the last few weeks it’s been a lot of work! It’s hard but the success is worth the pain and toil. The success isn’t the money–it’s in the process of the work itself. The joy is in knowing you are doing something you love even though it’s tough.
I’m sometimes surprised at how much has been accomplished. The project has gone from zero to hero with hundreds of people excited about the release, on August 19th (2013). It’s exciting.
So, back to the recipe:
The recipe for tenacity…for you and me, is to try things that are too hard for us. Try what is uncomfortable until it doesn’t bother you any more.
And other things too:
1. Meet fear head-on.
2. Combat, “I might fail.” with “I’ll learn something no matter what.”
3. Persist and when you feel like letting up…rest for just a tiny bit and then persist again.
I’m inspired by the dogged tenacity of a dog on the fetch. The dog pictures of Underwater Dogs capture it well.