What’s up to my School of Grit supporters? I wanted to kick off with the survey I sent out a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to everyone that filled it out. I had a lot of responses, a lot of great questions and comments and I want to pick a weekly question at random to answer. 

The first question that I have selected is, “How do you grow grit not only in yourself, but also model that and teach that to your kids?” I think that’s such an outstanding question to start with because we’re talking about how to not only build grit in ourselves, but also build it for our kids. I can’t think of anyone better to build that for than our own children. First off, there are lots of ways to do it, and I could go on and on, but the first thing I can think of is:

• Get outside of your comfort zone: Analyze where your comforts are, and then push yourself outside of them. This can be done through:
  • Scholastics
  • Music
  • Physical Activity

An example from my own life was when my son Brody wanted to take Taekwondo a couple of years ago. We put him in a class before Covid hit, and then shortly after had to switch to Zoom video classes. At the time he was 5, so I ended up doing the classes with him. We both ended up liking it and by the time the world opened back up, I joined classes too. We’re now on track to be black belts by the end of the year! My 11 year old daughter joined as well, and is just a few belts behind us. Martial Arts provides an opportunity to fail alongside your kids, and that it’s okay to fail. It’s how we learn! We don’t however want to continue to repeat the mistakes without changing our course of action. Fail forward fast! 

I’m 42 and trying to use my legs that don’t work as well, and I’m not near as flexible. It helps though! It’s also building my grit alongside my kids, and my wife who always comes to watch. Shoutout to Leslie! 

Another way to grow grit is to get outside in the elements. It’s cold out here in the midwest! My wife has been going out for a run even in the cold. Everyone prefers to run on a nice sunny day, and it’s so easy to lose motivation depending on the elements. Overall, motivation will fail you. Be disciplined. The small wins add up!

Catch you guys next week. Do hard things.

-Brad Ritter