<story><title>What I do when I feel like giving up (2015)</title><url>https://jamesclear.com/giving-up</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SeanAnderson</author><text>Showing up counts for a lot. Grit is a good, admirable trait which correlates heavily with success.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t feel like leveraging grit works in all situations, though? Do others feel differently?&lt;p&gt;For me, there are times I want to program, show up to program, and then fail to dictate the movement of pixels of light appropriately with my critical thoughts. It&amp;#x27;s not for a lack of grit. I could sit for hours making attempts to gain headway, but only build in frustration as I become increasingly aware of my failure to drop into flow state.&lt;p&gt;The brain is a muscle, decision fatigue is real, and your body imposes safeguards on how much you&amp;#x27;re allowed to crunch it. There are some tasks which do not progress without a sufficiently critical mindset and require rest. You can do other, less mentally demanding tasks, and this will satiate some of your hunger to create, but, just as cleaning the house isn&amp;#x27;t a suitable replacement for that actually important chore you&amp;#x27;re procrastinating on, I don&amp;#x27;t feel that writing a blog post that just says, &amp;quot;I showed up.&amp;quot; is sufficient to say you&amp;#x27;re continuing to progress in your own, personal character development?&lt;p&gt;Happy to be told I&amp;#x27;m being overly cynical here. I think I am and just need more coffee, but curious to hear other&amp;#x27;s thoughts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kayodelycaon</author><text>Grit is defined as &amp;quot;the perseverance and passion to achieve long–term goals&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I have a lot of mental health challenges and completely lack the reserve capacity most people have. The advice to &amp;quot;suck it up and do it&amp;quot; fails spectacularly with me. At best, I burn out mid-day. At worst, I burn out for several weeks.&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;#x27;t preclude having grit.&lt;p&gt;I work to know myself and my limits. Other people do not get to define my limitations. I know me, they don&amp;#x27;t. I will never &amp;quot;live up to my potential&amp;quot; in their eyes.&lt;p&gt;To them, I lack grit in all its forms.&lt;p&gt;But grit isn&amp;#x27;t about each day, it&amp;#x27;s about the long term. If I have to give up today, it&amp;#x27;s only so I can be ready for tomorrow. Every day is a chance to start again.&lt;p&gt;That is the very definition of perseverance. It&amp;#x27;s a choice to keep going after being defeated.</text></comment>
<story><title>What I do when I feel like giving up (2015)</title><url>https://jamesclear.com/giving-up</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SeanAnderson</author><text>Showing up counts for a lot. Grit is a good, admirable trait which correlates heavily with success.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t feel like leveraging grit works in all situations, though? Do others feel differently?&lt;p&gt;For me, there are times I want to program, show up to program, and then fail to dictate the movement of pixels of light appropriately with my critical thoughts. It&amp;#x27;s not for a lack of grit. I could sit for hours making attempts to gain headway, but only build in frustration as I become increasingly aware of my failure to drop into flow state.&lt;p&gt;The brain is a muscle, decision fatigue is real, and your body imposes safeguards on how much you&amp;#x27;re allowed to crunch it. There are some tasks which do not progress without a sufficiently critical mindset and require rest. You can do other, less mentally demanding tasks, and this will satiate some of your hunger to create, but, just as cleaning the house isn&amp;#x27;t a suitable replacement for that actually important chore you&amp;#x27;re procrastinating on, I don&amp;#x27;t feel that writing a blog post that just says, &amp;quot;I showed up.&amp;quot; is sufficient to say you&amp;#x27;re continuing to progress in your own, personal character development?&lt;p&gt;Happy to be told I&amp;#x27;m being overly cynical here. I think I am and just need more coffee, but curious to hear other&amp;#x27;s thoughts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jameal</author><text>I see grit as a trait expressed in the long-term. It takes grit to know when you&amp;#x27;re at that point of fatigue, to walk away and take a long walk so you can come back refreshed. And then to actually come back to it.&lt;p&gt;I think that you and the author both have valid points of view that don&amp;#x27;t necessarily contradict each other.</text></comment>