Millennials Are Missing Grit

Being a millennial, I have read my fair share of books, blogs and Pinterest quotes on what to do to reach my goals and how to make my dreams a reality. Let's be honest, we all have done it, watched that YouTube video: '5 tips on how to achieve your dreams' or read that Lifehacker article on the 'Key to Effectiveness' (By the way, there are some great articles on there!).

Personally, I love the different advice and perspectives that I get from reading what others have done to help them achieve their dreams. Being a woman and coming from a poor area in Brooklyn, New York and raised in a single parent household, developing essential character traits such as self-love, thinking big, and self-discipline, all helped me to get into college, graduate law school, pass the New York bar exam (let me tell you that is an exam I would never want to take again!) and become a licensed attorney all by the time I was 25.

Character traits are essential to seeing your dreams become your reality and those traits are things that we should be developing over the course of our life and not just a one off. Now that I am focusing on another passion and dream of mine, which is motivational speaking and leadership, I notice one trait that is essential no matter what the dream is that you want to see become a reality in your life- and it is GRIT.

Truth be told, Grit is not a word that you hear a lot, unless you are watching a TED talk or exercising with an intense personal trainer who is screaming at you to push through and give him 10 more squats (I have experience and a couple of times I always stop at 9). Grit is defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. It is a personal resolve to stick it out and go for your dreams no matter what life hands you. Grit is what you see in the Rocky movies, right about when Sylvester Stallone is going to give up and then something rises up in Rocky and he comes back with a vengeance and wins.

For us Millennials or Gen Z, this word can be foreign when we think of what to focus on to achieve our dreams; or we notice it as something that is used in movies to give an inspirational ending after a climax, but Grit is so much more. I would say that it is an essential trait that each person needs to develop early in his or her life. It is something that should be taught in school and in the home. We need Grit if we want to change the world, transform society, make our dreams a reality. Grit is necessary because we live in a world of instant results.

With technology at our fingertips we see other people's success, and it makes it seem like fulfilling your dreams is easy and can happen overnight. At times, we forget that it may not happen for us on the first try but on the 1000th try, or that we may not see the results we want for 10 years. This dynamic is challenging and if we are not careful, we can give up on our dreams when we don't see the results we want in the time frame that we expected.

What if we don't fulfill our dreams right after university, what if it takes us 7 years to reach our goals, how will we make sure that the dream in us does not die? How do we continue to go after our dream at 31, as we would have at 21? We have to develop a deep resolve within us, a determination that cannot be moved by time or circumstance, and that we will pursue our dreams day in and day out with passion and perseverance.

Grit is developed each day when we make a personal commitment that we will stick it out no matter what we experience. Each chance you get, go after your dreams with passion despite the losses you may encounter. What if you begin to see your dream as a life journey and that you are in it for the long-term haul?

Decide within yourself that neither circumstances, nor time will deter you, instead let it motivate you to go harder, to try to more, to give it another go. Start today, even if you have put that dream aside or give up on it- why not make the resolve that you will pick up your passion once again and work at it until you see results. Imagine what would happen in your life and with your dreams if you developed Grit, it may just be the thing that helps you fulfill your dreams.

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Danna, or as her friends say "it's Donna but with an 'a'" loves people and inspiring people to live their best life. Her current addictions are fashion trends, Netflix binges and ice cream.