Building Grit, Part III: Motivation to Succeed

In a previous article I motivated why grit is the one quality every (aspiring) leader cannot do without and outlined the four components of grit. The article also provided the link to my online grit test . I hope you have done the test. Perhaps you have found that you score below the cutoff on motivation to succeed. Of my EMBA students, there is still one quarter who score below the cutoff. What are barriers that lower your motivation to succeed? What can you do about them?

Sworn enemies of motivation to succeed

#1. Lack of commitment to your goals

If you don't 'own' your goals, you'll abandon them at the first sign of difficulty. For you to persevere when you hit roadblocks, and you will!, you must own the outcome you desire. Say you want to lose weight. It is tough to do, at least when you don't use Ozempic. Time and again, you have to refuse that great dessert. If, after two weeks of agony, you have lost 2 pounds. Will you continue? Only if losing weight is truly a central importance to your life. If not, the apple pie is irresistible.

#2. Procrastination

The best approach to succeed is to start today, not tomorrow. Go for it right away, do not delay. Do you truly delay things to which you are committed. If you are truly committed to losing weight, don't say you will begin after the holiday season.

#3. Fear of failure

This is an insidious one, related to self-confidence. If you have a strong fear of failure (your inner critic telling you you are not capable), you'll almost certainly think you'll not succeed. If you already believe you will not succeed, why even try? Many scholars don't even submit their work to major international journals (which have a rejection rate of 80-90% if not higher) because they dread the failure, which happens to al of us.

#4. Lack of tenacity

Success is not going to happen overnight! You need to persevere. If this path to goal achievement does not work, try a different path. And another one. I have an academic paper that was rejected by six top-journals, before it was finally accepted by a seventh journal. The entire process took 9 years. It was painful. Frustrating. But I got it in, finally.

Take a few seconds--which of these four sworn enemies of motivation to succeed do you recognize?

Strategies to improve your motivation to succeed

#1. Visualize your desired outcome

How will I look when I have lost 50 pounds? How will I feel? What does it mean to be the C-suite of my company? Or to be a pre-eminent scholar? By visualizing what you want to achieve, you inspire yourself to face the disappointments and hardships on the way.

#2. Practice looking at the glass being half full

We all know people who look at any situation as a glass half full. Well, that attitude helps tremendously. Focus on positivity, positivity. Yes, be realistic, but from what you have achieved, not far you still have to go. Say you want to lose these 50 pounds. After one month, you have lost 10. The negative way is "I still have to lose 40 pounds." The positive way is "I have already lost 10 pounds. I got started and now, I can fit into these pants I bought some time ago."

#3. Break larger goals into micro goals

Your ultimate goal is very far out. Break them into smaller, easier attainable goals that you can achieve one after the other. Nothing is so motivating as reaching intermediate goals. Say you want to become an effective public speaker. A first micro goal could be to read inspiring stories about past people who became great speakers, and what they achieved--motivating! A second goal could be to hire a speech coach, then practicing in front of a mirror, etc.

This is the fourth article in a series on grit, published exclusively on LinkedIn. Click on the links for other articles:

• Grit: The One Quality Every (Aspiring) Leader Needs to Have -> this article contains a link to the online grit test, developed using my academic research on scale development.
• Building Grit, Part I: Improve Your Focus
• Building Grit, Part II: Increase Your Self-Confidence
• Building Grit, Part IV: Resilience

Jan-Benedict Steenkamp ?is C. Knox Massey Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches the wildly successful Executive MBA course Leadership Lessons from History . The course is based on his book?Time to Lead: Lessons for Today’s Leaders from Bold Decisions that Changed History . His latest book, Warrior, Queen, Scientist, Activist: Gritty Women Who Bent the Arc of History , was published in March 2024 by Xlibris.