Grit For Freelance Success
It's just the first week of 2014. A lot of us are probably still on vacation mode. For some of us, this is the best part of the year to reflect on our successes and failures in the previous year and set our goals for the new year.
Let me focus on the successes and failures. The only way to determine that is to measure it against your goals. Were your actions and decisions moved you closer to your goals? If yes, then, great! You are successful in reaching your yearly goals. But if not, what are your plans for this year? Will you set different goals for this year or will you continue what you had started?
So, how do these relate to grit?
I watched an interesting TED Talk by Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth on Youtube about grit. IQ and EQ as she explained were not the determinants to success but it is the grit.
What is grit? As Duckworth said, grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. It is having stamina. And grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Grit is a valuable characteristic to succeed in freelancing. Being your own boss have perks but it has a lot of challenges. Your career solely depends on you. So, when you fail, there is nobody else to blame but yourself. But being gritty gives you that drive to persevere and make it work.
When I resigned from the last company I worked with, I told myself that I'll make things work no matter what and I promised myself that failure wouldn't be my option. I made wrong decisions along the way but it never occured to me to give up. I am not that kind of person who easily gives in to problems. That is also the reason why I stick to my previous jobs for a long time.
The question now is how to be gritty. And it seems there is no answer to that. My personal belief is when you love what you do, grit tends to come out naturally. When you no longer love what you are doing, it is easy to get exhausted, stressed and bored. Work becomes mechanical. You work without your heart into it. To me, that pose to be a big problem. I want to love my work naturally and not forced to love it for the sake of money.
My wish to all of us freelancers and Soliloquy readers is, may we be gritty with our goals. Soon enough, we will reach success. Remember that success does not happen over night.
Watch the Ted Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth here:
Let me focus on the successes and failures. The only way to determine that is to measure it against your goals. Were your actions and decisions moved you closer to your goals? If yes, then, great! You are successful in reaching your yearly goals. But if not, what are your plans for this year? Will you set different goals for this year or will you continue what you had started?
So, how do these relate to grit?
I watched an interesting TED Talk by Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth on Youtube about grit. IQ and EQ as she explained were not the determinants to success but it is the grit.
What is grit? As Duckworth said, grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. It is having stamina. And grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Grit is a valuable characteristic to succeed in freelancing. Being your own boss have perks but it has a lot of challenges. Your career solely depends on you. So, when you fail, there is nobody else to blame but yourself. But being gritty gives you that drive to persevere and make it work.
When I resigned from the last company I worked with, I told myself that I'll make things work no matter what and I promised myself that failure wouldn't be my option. I made wrong decisions along the way but it never occured to me to give up. I am not that kind of person who easily gives in to problems. That is also the reason why I stick to my previous jobs for a long time.
The question now is how to be gritty. And it seems there is no answer to that. My personal belief is when you love what you do, grit tends to come out naturally. When you no longer love what you are doing, it is easy to get exhausted, stressed and bored. Work becomes mechanical. You work without your heart into it. To me, that pose to be a big problem. I want to love my work naturally and not forced to love it for the sake of money.
My wish to all of us freelancers and Soliloquy readers is, may we be gritty with our goals. Soon enough, we will reach success. Remember that success does not happen over night.
Watch the Ted Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth here:
Want to know how gritty you are? Take the 12- Item Grit Scale.
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