While we don’t always do it, one of the primary goals here at 2brains1mind is to show our readers the inner mechanics that lead many people to success. Focusing on everyone from artists, business people, hobbyists, and entrepreneurs the point of this site is to try to deconstruct what it is exactly that makes so many successful people, both past and present, good at what they do.

This entry focuses on grit in relation to success, and was inspired by one of Maria Popova’s annotated readings on BrainPickings.org. The most essential component to any successful story is grit, or as I like to refer to it sometimes, showing up. No matter what you’re wanting to accomplish, consistency hands down distances the professionals from amateurs day after day. Sure, a select few individuals might be savants following the footsteps of Wolfgang Mozart who could compose at an age as early as five, but the majority of people, myself included, do not come into possession of a skill so easily.

Case in point, I’ve just recently read what is now becoming one of my favorite books titled Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, authored by John Steinbeck. In this book, Steinbeck, one of the most prestigious American authors, chronicles his entire writing process through The Grapes of Wrath using a journal published posthumously. However, the merit of this text isn’t that it gives great advice on writing, although there are certainly some gems to be found, but that Steinbeck focuses on the grueling campaign of his writing process: the ups, the downs, the doubts, the embarrassment, the self indulgence, and ultimately the hard work. He frequently laments on the process of writing his book, and at one point states,

“This [work] must be done. The failure of will even for one day has a devastating effect on the whole, far more important than just the lost of time and wordage.”

Steinbeck’s greatest adversary to his life’s calling wasn’t anything external, but himself. At one point reflecting near the end of TGOF Steinbeck writes,

“I am all mixed up, but this time I simply won’t let myself [be distracted]. After all I have a book to write. Once it is written it will be all right. Then I can do things.”

Ever the drill sergeant at heart, Steinbeck was not flawless like many people like to think when reflecting on successful professionals in one or another field. In fact, he struggled daily, writing,

“I am so lazy and the thing ahead is so very difficult.”

It’s astounding to think of John Steinbeck as lazy considering he’d write sometimes for 10 hours a day. Nevertheless, he saw himself that way and it serves many readers’ interest to see that even one the most prolific and successful writers in American history, at times, was plagued by self-doubt. To be candid, his journal has many such entries which express the agony, pitfalls, and self-loathing that accompanies writing.

However, through it all this invaluable book reminds readers of the most important quality encapsulated in every endeavor worth pursuing: persistence. Continuously telling himself to focus, Steinbeck writes,

“And now all of the foolishness and the self-indulgence is over. Now there can be no lost days and no lost time.” Showing true grit, he further expresses in one entry, “My mind doesn’t want to work–hates to work in fact, but I’ll make it.”

No matter the challenges he faced Steinbeck regularly sat down to do that one thing he knew was needed most, write. For others it may be a different calling, the paintbrush rather than the pen, or a cement foundation to build upon and not the blank page. However, regardless of what you pursue, the main ingredient for success over and over again is going to be showing up for the task on hand; in sickness or health, during good or bad times, and whether we want to or not we must sit down to do the work if our intention is to be great at it. In other words, we have to show up, even if we don’t want to, or especially because we don’t want to.

Many might point to others and say it’s easy for them because they’re following their passions: they might say, “Of course they can show up, they love doing what they do.”

I assure you Steinbeck loved what he did when writing The Grapes of Wrath because he knew it served as an opportunity to bring about positive change for immigrant workers. However, I can also assure you that he saw his writing as work because he was the type of individual to acknowledge that anything worth having is going to take a lot of effort. Over and over again Steinbeck remarks on his routine making comments like:

“And so to work. The page is done now but not the chapter.”; “Now the time is here to go to work.”; “Finished it. By God and for a while I didn’t think I was going to. But I got the full day’s work done.”

Regardless of the amount of passion behind you there will be days when you feel down and out. Times that you make excuses for yourself because suddenly the willpower just isn’t there. Those are the critical moments in which successful people, like Steinbeck, shouldered their reluctance and showed up anyway.

It’s hard, yes, and it certainly isn’t what most people today want to hear when you tell them you have advice on how to be successful. Many would rather be given “5 Quick Tips to Success,” or “How to Become Successful Overnight” pitches. It’s not to say that these tactics don’t work, they can to some degree. However, ask any person alive today about their success, either an individual you look up to or one that is in the public spotlight for standing out in their field, and most often they will say they same thing: “I worked at it every single day.”

Do you want to be successful at something you’re passionate about? Of course you do, everyone does, which is why you have to distance yourself from the rest of the pack. Showing up every morning, afternoon, or evening to do that one thing you really desire is going to be the most essential part of anything worth having; remembering this simple truth and applying it to your life will make a world of difference.

If you’re interested in reading Steinbeck’s journal Working Days I would also highly recommend supplementing that book with The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield, and The One Thing, by Gary Keller for their detailed accounts on how to overcome some of the most common resistances we face on a daily basis.