7 Cups 10th Birthday Celebration: Embracing Grit

Setting goals and having my mind set on the what I want to be doing in the future, or upon finishing those goals, is my main motivation. Setbacks could include financial struggles, or being too exhausted from work to have the energy to study. I just need to keep my mind on the end goal, then, it is enough to keep me going.

At the beginning of COVID, I went back to school, taking online courses so that I could keep working at my job. I'm not exactly academically smart, so it was difficult for me to keep up with reading the material and doing assignments, as I continued to work part-time. What kept me going then, was the dream I had for the purpose of taking those courses. I wanted to teach English in South Korea, and to get a work permit, I needed to either have a Degree or Diploma. So, I chose to study for a Diploma. With the thought of wanting to teach overseas, was what kept me motivated. (Although my goals and dream has changed now, I would still like to achieve it one day).

@SoulfullyAButterfly

I thank you all for sharing

Thank you for a great read @soulfullyabutterfly and a very useful 7 Cups value to help us to grow and approach life with a growth mindset.

Embracing setbacks and challenges help us to grow and often we are so focused on the setback(s) but do not pay attention to what it is teaching us. Recently I experienced a setback and whilst I was and still am quite disappointed, I am using this to expand my knowledge and learn more. I really like the idea of making continuous improvements and learning new skills is a lifelong process if we are mindful of what is around us. Making mistakes is often something we can be quite afraid of at times but if we use it as something we can learn from it can really help us grow. I've often found the more important lessons in the mistakes that I have made.

I stay motivated by taking small steps towards the goals that I set. If I have a certain goal, I list all of the actions that may be beneficial to meeting the goal, and I try to achieve them one by one as focusing on everything I need to do all at once leads to feeling overwhelmed.

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Great Post! I want to reply to both those questions but with ironic humor and all seriousness, one tactic I have a hard time with is not to get distracted. I focus on lost time and start to get nerved up when I keep getting distracted. 😕

As Arnold would say, "I'll be back".😅. (after fixing car and installing shelves)

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Thank you Soul, for this thought-provoking post so rich in helpful and useful ideas to improve our lives!

Answering your questions, when faced with significant setbacks I try to take a step back from obsessing about my current failure, and look at the big picture, to all the obstacles ! have overcome, the opportunities that unexpectedly appeared during my life, and the goals that I have achieved.

Which shows that life has always given me a second chance, and that I am a capable person, able to achieve good things. With this mindset, I look to the future, as full of possibilities and opportunities for new achievements, as my past experience demonstrates. This failure is not the end of the road at all.

An example of a goal I have set for myself many times that always required grit, was getting fit enough to trek in the mountains.

I love walking mountain trails and reaching the summit or at least high altitudes. We have here the Andes, the 2nd highest mountain range after the Himalayas. Gorgeous, awe-inspiring places to explore. Walking those mountains is a spiritual experience for me.

But it requires a level of fitness (and thus of previous training) that doesn't come natural to me at all, it goes totally contrary to my character, as I am a most sedentary, contemplative bookworm person.

The trick I used many times to stay motivated and active in training was regular visualization, picturing myself walking a mountain trail and reaching the summit, and the delight and fulfillment I felt from that.

Like making the goal achievable in my mind and anticipating the reward. I also kept my goal always present by watching related videos, reading inspiring articles and books, and even having a picture of my favorite mountain as wallpaper on my PC screen.

When at some point I failed to do the planned training, I tried to dismiss the intrusive thoughts of failure and get back to my training routine as if nothing had happened.

This is something I learned from meditation, by the way, It`s ok to get lost, just come back, and come back and come back, always come back to your chosen path. Coming back after losing your path is good enough, and will result in success in due time.

@SoulfullyAButterfly

🌸 What are some strategies you employ to develop a growth mindset and maintain motivation when faced with setbacks?

A biggie is like @healingtalk had mentioned. Coming back to it when it's hard to complete.

Something else that has helped me for many years was a quote that I heard about 40 years ago and I never forgot the spirit of it. I've tried to look it up but I haven't really found the exact quote and I don't remember the exact words but I will share the idea the best I can.

"It's not doing what you like to do that will make you happy, it's learning to like what you have to do that will make your life blessed". Author unknown.

With that said, most of the time I'm not doing what I love to do, as a matter of fact 99% of the time I'm just trying to fix things, emotional things, physical things, all kinds of things but in the process of all those things: I try to find grace and purpose in how I approach those things and so that's kind of how I handle setbacks and trials. With a learning mindset I suppose.

Because I'm seldom doing fun things, it's hard to stay motivated. A very big tactic that I use on a daily basis is to set my phone timer to 15 minutes and do something on that project for 15 minutes and when the timer goes off, just reset it and do it for another 15 minutes and often that gets me over a hill so that I can complete the task. Sometimes not! In those cases, I rest when I have to; and then come back to it for 15 minutes. I'm usually listening to an audio book also.

I cheated my way on the road to recovery from multiple strokes, aneurysms, heart, respiratory and kidney failure. I say I cheated because I did not do it for me. I relearned to breathe because my sister begged me to breathe and passed family told me to. Surgery and breathing made the heart work again, dialysis made the kidneys work again. I relearned to use my arms and legs and to speak because I could not leave my daughters stuck caring for me. Then something else started happening, I learned that I really like a challenge. Physical and Occupational therapists would challenge me and I would go one better. I am still recovering almost two years later...but since I am no longer much burden on others, the recovery has to be for me. I challenged myself to walk a mile a day or more, had a few health setbacks but I can do it. I challenged myself to relearn to swim and I can swim like a fish again. Same with typing so I could at least keep up with friends and family because I am unable to drive to go see them. Next challenge will be kayaking, although for now, I am concentrating on picking out my grandson on the football field and following his progress...(I am very nearly blind due to the strokes, but it is from damage to nerves rather than to eyesight, so retraining my brain to see). So short answer is challenge myself.

@SoulfullyAButterfly

I read a lot of self-help book

@SoulfullyAButterfly

think now need grit because two months ago I get brain injury and now learning to walk again very hard but want more any thing in world to surf again so even physical therapy makes me cry every time keep trying trying trying because remind self of surfing one day surf again have to !surfing is whole life to me can’t even think would be never again is why learning to walk again even though hate it !! 🏄🏾‍♂️🌊🏝️

@SoulfullyAButterfly happy birthday 7 cups