"Grit"

   I have put a link here to a video of Angela Duckworth's talk for TED. If you haven't seen this (especially if you are a parent/teacher ), it is WELL worth the 6 minutes it takes to watch.


Go HERE.

    I first saw this a while ago.
    Today it struck me that ALL of my children have a lot of "grit". My children learned early on that learning is possible, that effort reaps results. They saw the effort Ricki put in, and the wonderful results she obtained. And they saw their mother dealing with difficult situations, persevering and going on. These are valuable gifts for children.
    Sometimes people want their kids to see them as invincible, and that is a mistake. We need to be honest about our trials, and our successes. They need to see that successfully overcoming a challenge was not necessarily easy, but that we struggled to do the right thing.

   And for those of you trying to eat in a healthy manner, note that Ms. Duckworth defines "grit" as "passion and perseverance for long term goals". This means that your best chance to succeed at losing weight is NOT some mythological "will power". Your best chance at success is if you can become truly passionate (day-by-day!) about living healthily. It's all about changing your priorities, and making healthy living a central one in your life.