#21: One Thing Every Writer Needs to Succeed

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I help a lot of writing coach clients organize their writing lives or take a fresh look at their writing goals and projects. In the process, we often look at task management programs, time management systems, project management philosophies to find something they can implement that suits their personality. We experiment and almost always find some system that works for each person.

This often helps the flow of their days and weeks so they make greater progress toward their goals.

But there’s one thing writers need even more than a bullet journal or a filing system or Evernote or Asana or ToDoist or Wunderlist.

One thing can make all the difference when facing a deadline, when sitting down to do the work, when sensing internal resistance to a project, when feeling stuck on something. One thing can help you succeed at your writing life more than anything else.

This one thing sees you through hard times, when you’re questioning, distracted, discouraged or stuck. This one thing helps you achieve your long-range goals.

You wanna know what that one thing is?

It’s grit.

Key ideas from this episode:

• Grit outweighs intelligence as an indicator of success
• Grit is more important than talent in achieving success
• The Grit Scale can rate your level of grit
• Will Ann’s grit results surprise you?
• Grow in grit
• Funnel other areas where you exhibit grit into your writing

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED Talk
• Take the Grit Scale
• Angela Duckworth and the Research on “Grit”

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