100 Milestones: Reaching Your Goals

So far this year I have run over 1000k of ultra-marathon trail races and climbed the equivalent of over six times the height of Everest. This includes running five ‘one hundred k' races and three '168k /one hundred mile' races.  During each race, we typically climb a total elevation of anywhere between 4500m to around 9000m. To give you some context, for me, a 100k race can take anywhere from 17 to 24hrs and sometimes longer. A 168k race takes around 35 hours. During races, you often find yourself alone in the middle of nowhere in the dark in the rain or cold. 

I discovered running in my early 40s so I can't tell you how to run, or give you any tips about how to run faster.  Instead, I want to talk about the traits that encourage and motivate me to train and exercise daily or most importantly finish a race even when things are tough. These same traits are particularly relevant for our daily work, our health, and our relationships, and I believe we can nurture these traits to achieve success in a particular area of passion. 

Facing the elements in Yunnan

During trail races, the weather can be extreme. From hot, direct sun to minus zero temperatures and icy wind.  Recently I was at a 100k race north of Lijiang in Yunnan Province on the Southern edge of the Himalayas so I was at an altitude of over 3000m. Suddenly, the skies went black, thunder and lightning crashed around us and torrential rain fell. Within a few minutes, I was sheltering but shivering. As I sat wrapped in an emergency foil blanket, I pondered whether to quit the race. Many people around me were talking about quitting and typically around 1/3 of the runners quit in long-distance races. Already 80k in, I had climbed 4950m in the morning and could have stopped knowing that I had already accomplished climbing to respectable height. But I chose to wait, and suddenly the rain disappeared, and I ran on for another 20 km to the finish line under strong sun. I wasn’t going to quit! 

So what makes me keep going in these instances when I am tired or battling the extreme weather? Some people look at my personality and call it being stubborn. Others call it determination.  

Putting Science behind Determination：Angela Duckworth

I wanted to find out more about this trait and if there was any science behind this determination. Over 15 years ago, the American academic Angela Duckworth started asking the same question when she was a math teacher. She looked at her math students and noticed that it wasn’t the brightest kids who were getting the highest marks. Then she undertook a more in-depth study to identify what made some US cadets finish their initial training – and it wasn’t fitness. So if talent isn’t what gets you to your goals, nor being the smartest person in the room, what does?  

The Grit Scale 

Angela Duckworth decided to take a scientific approach and try to measure it. So she created the Grit Scale to measure how easily people give up on a project asking questions such as: How quickly do people drop when things get challenging? What makes them lose focus and get distracted? And how quickly they move to other projects?  She also acknowledged and factored in bias in the way people respond to questions. The result was a total score out of 5 with the average American scoring 3.8.  

The outcome of Angela Duckworth's research was the following: 

Passion + perseverance for long-term goals = success due to GRIT.  

So what is GRIT? 

One definition I like is “the courage and strength of mind that makes it possible for somebody to continue doing something difficult or unpleasant“ (Oxford Learners Dictionaries). Now the point here is that this is about doing something for the long-term. It is about having sticking power. 

So here are some points that all of us can consider:

First of all, whilst some people may naturally have GRIT due to their home environment, it is in fact, something that we can all acquire and there is a value in simply sticking at something.  The benefits of doing so mean that we can enrich our abilities. 

Second, we must be content that we may not be the best at something in the short term but over time persistence and perseverance does pay off - but we need to be prepared for and get comfortable with failure along the way.  

Third, we must stop looking for short-term gratification in our lives and instead focus on the long-term. 

Why is this important? Well when we look at the most important aspects of our lives we can summarize it as economic (the cost of our lifestyles or the way that we sustain it with work), our relationships (family and friends), health, and our passions (which may or may not be related to the first three). These are all long-term and continual parts of our lives and are more interrelated than we might think.  

For me, how does GRIT help? As I mentioned, I started running in my early 40s. The importance of running and keeping fit goes far beyond doing a race but has positive benefits in other areas of my life such as when work is tough. GRIT sustains me. So I want to end by encouraging you to stick with your projects, don’t be deterred when things get tough and recognize that if you are already passionate about something, and you have clear goals, you will eventually find success.  

Being physically and mentally strong against the elements, has helped me in other areas of my life. Once you start to push yourself a little further each time, you start to see the improvement. 

GRIT isn’t about calling yourself a runner or running 100 miles. GRIT, is about keeping going for the distance, the long-term – and this applies to all of us. 

Angela Duckworth published 'GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance' with Simon & Schuster.