Don’t give up on the grind

Image by caroline gray via Flickr

Meghan MacLaren | Staff Writer

opinion@fiusm.com


 

How many times has someone involved with sports told you all of the great life lessons sports can give you? I’m betting quite a few. And how many times have you actually paid attention to those lessons? I’d say the ratio is pretty similar.
How you feel about sports is not relevant to this article. But there is one, overwhelmingly simple lesson that athletes learn the hard way that absolutely everybody should do their utmost to live by: Don’t give up on the grind.

I think most people consider themselves hard workers. We wouldn’t all be in college if we didn’t put at least a little bit of effort in at some point in our lives. While it doesn’t always seem to be noticed, it’s something to take pride in – regardless of whether you get rewarded for it. And this is the most difficult part – the most difficult, but by far the most important. Rewards, results and recognition are not the way you should define yourself. Rewards, results and recognition may not be reflective of everything you’ve put in. But that does not for a second mean you should quit on the grind.

The grind is the part that you control. This is where the athletes with their heads sorted out will tell you it is the only part that you control. They can train their hardest every single day for months – waking up early, saying no to Friday night drinks, missing out on parties – but when the time for competition comes their opponent just has a better day. But that doesn’t change a single thing that athlete did over those months; it doesn’t make them a bad person.

And the same thing goes for everyone, with anything they are working towards. If you study for a month before your mid-term exam – doing the same thing as that athlete, waking up early and saying no to parties – but when your professor comes to grade it he’s in the worst mood he’s been in all year – does that put you at blame? Of course it doesn’t.
Grades, results and recognition are gratifying, and they make us feel like we’ve achieved something. The system teaches us that they mean everything. But not achieving these things doesn’t always mean we haven’t achieved anything.

What we learn during the process, the bettering of ourselves as we go, that’s what really counts. Sooner or later the grind will reward you. But that process is the only thing we have a say over. So don’t blame yourself – or let others blame you – for the things you don’t have a say over. Don’t give up on the grind.

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