In this BIT: What is grit? See our tips on how to build grit, become mentally tough, and create a strong mindset.
Rebecca Rusch has spent much of her life doing things that most people would consider extreme. The seven-time world champion endurance athlete has raced for hours, days, and sometimes through the night. In 2003, a magazine gave her a nickname that stuck: the Queen of Pain. But more than 20 years later, Rusch is trying to leave that name behind. “My nickname is the Queen of Pain, but I’m trying to shift that into the Queen of Play,” she says. “You wouldn’t think joy goes with grit, but it really does.”
Rebecca shares an interesting way to think about perseverance and building grit. We tend to associate perseverance with suffering. We picture someone pushing through exhaustion, reaching the summit, crossing the finish line, or refusing to give up when everything is going wrong. But when you talk to people who have actually built their lives around endurance and strong mindsets, they often describe perseverance in much less dramatic terms. In fact, from our own interviews with people who undergo great feats of perseverance, we’re left feeling as though perseverance is something that we all can achieve.
Robyn Benincasa is a world champion adventure racer and a firefighter of more than 20 years. Some of the races she has competed in last as long as ten days, yet when she talks about building grit, she doesn’t focus on the hardest moment of the race. “It’s not the big gritty things,” she says. “It’s the day-to-day quiet perseverance, doing the little things in your training and preparation.”
Being mentally tough involves getting up to train when nobody is there to see it. Following through when you aren’t particularly motivated and doing the same small things over and over again. “The games are won in the training,” Benincasa says. “The races are won in the training.”
Of course, that is also the part that can be hardest to stick with. The beginning of something new can be exciting. Progress feels good. Motivation is high. Then, eventually, it becomes ordinary. Robin Benincasa has a phrase for that too: “Your commitment starts when the fun stops. At the end of the day, her solution isn’t to wait until you magically feel motivated again. It’s to make the next step small enough that you’ll actually do it. If you don’t feel like exercising, tell yourself you only have to walk around the block. “Just get out the door.”
Sometimes perseverance and a strong mindset is nothing more impressive than that. Mountaineer Bonita Norris, who became the youngest British woman at the time to summit Mount Everest, uses a similar idea when things feel overwhelming. “The moment you’re in is not what defines you,” she says.
A bad day can feel permanent when you’re in the middle of it. So can a setback, a rejection, or the feeling that you’re moving backwards. Rebecca Rusch learned during her first adventure race that those moments almost always change. “No matter how good or bad you feel, it won’t last,” she says. “If you just keep going, eventually the down turns into an up.” That mindset applies far beyond endurance sports.
Screenwriter and five-time world champion triathlete Lesley Paterson spent 16 years trying to get one movie made. Along the way, she used her race winnings to help pay for the film rights and heard plenty of people tell her to stop trying. “Just give it up. Why are you doing this? You’re never going to get it off the ground.” Instead of treating those years as wasted time, Paterson started looking at them differently. “It was like our school,” she says. Every rejection taught her something. Every failed attempt became part of figuring out how to make the next one better. Eventually, the movie did get made. It was All Quiet on the Western Front, and Paterson went on to win a BAFTA for it.
We usually notice perseverance once it produces a result worth talking about. A championship. A summit. An award. A project that finally succeeds. What we don’t see are all the uneventful days that came first. But, the most tangible lesson of these incredible stories might just be that perseverance doesn’t always require doing something extraordinary. More often, perseverance means doing something fairly ordinary again tomorrow.
Get out the door. Do the training. Try again. And, as Rebecca Rusch has learned, find a way to enjoy some of it too. We hope that this BIT inspires you to keep going at your goal, build grit, as well as brings you a Small Bit of Happiness.
For more happiness check out our Mood Boost page.
Featuring quick videos created for teens by teens.
Our thanks to the guests whose advice shape this piece on becoming mentally tough. Their conversations on the Hack Your Happiness podcast keep paying off long after the cameras stop, and their books, research, and work are worth your time. Explore their work below.
Rebecca Rusch, seven-time world champion endurance athlete and author of Rusch to Glory. Learn more at rebeccarusch.com
Robyn Benincasa, world champion adventure racer, firefighter, and bestselling author. Learn more at robynbenincasa.com
Bonita Norris, mountaineer and author of The Girl Who Climbed Everest. Learn more at bonita-norris.com
Lesley Paterson, five-time world champion triathlete and BAFTA-winning screenwriter. Learn more at lesleypaterson.com
In this article you’ll learn how to build a strong mindset, become mentally tough, and understand ‘what is grit’.
