What are you doing that's seemingly impossible?

Coding your first interactive website?

Losing 50 pounds?

Learning something completely unfamiliar?

Starting your own side-hustle?

Doing something you once thought not possible?

Yes. It is incredibly difficult. You’ll probably consider giving up more than twice.

Yes. You’re certainly going to feel incompetent. That the work required to overcome this obstacle is so much it isn’t even worth attempting. That you’re so behind it isn’t worth trying.

Do it anyway. Do it (the work) anyway. Merely, do the work.

Make a long-term commitment, and follow through.

If you can learn to feel the pang of discomfort and inertia and doubt and indecision when confronted with doing something seemingly impossible, and continue to continue doing it, you can learn how to inevitably accomplish anything.

Because then it’s not a question of if you will succeed—it’s when.

Grit is sticking with a seemingly impossible goal long enough to see it become your reality. To see it shape you, define you, or reinvent you—to endow you with the luxury of reassessing your future.

I can’t think of a more vital skill.