Finishing Well
Don’t count the days; rather, make the days count.
Hallmark-y, I know. But upon reflection, this pithy saying conceals something rather profound that I want to talk about.
Facing adversity and navigating challenges are part of life. Whether it’s your car breaking down again or you just can’t find the motivation to focus on your studies. Perhaps you’ve endured family tragedy or are struggling to find that ever-elusive work-life balance”.
It can be all too easy to look at the looming mountain of assessments, due dates, and deadlines as you approach the end of an academic year. To text your friends and complain between classes, “Oh man, I can’t wait for the holidays!” We’ve all been there; it’s completely understandable. However, in the spirit of encouragement, I want to share one concept with you that I hope will help you stay the course and see the importance of finishing well.
Find Your Grit
You don’t have to be alive long to know that life will beat you about. Our choices and our attitudes grow and develop as we travel through life. Circumstances come and go, but we remain. The question that arises is how we are going to respond. Will we crack under pressure? Many do, and that’s okay – but learning to develop grit will help you to finish well. What is grit? Great question.
Grit is a plethora of things and can be constantly nuanced, but a simple definition of grit is ‘a combination of your ability to persevere and self-motivate yourself because of the passion you have about a particular goal or project.’ Grit is essential in overcoming hardship and developing resilience. So, when things are difficult, and it seems as though you couldn’t imagine writing another assessment, committing a scale to memory, revising that melody or editing your footage one more time, take a moment. Pause and identify that internal motivation that makes you want to keep going. Lean into the intensity and the pressure because that’s how we make diamonds, baby!
Finishing well starts with the end in mind. Recalling that you’re here for a purpose, that purpose may be hazy, or it may be crystal clear – whatever it is for you, hold tight to it. Remember that God is in control, which means we aren’t, so we still need to develop patience and trust. God has gone before us and made a way through, but we are called to be diligent and to steward our resources well – to press onward, not so we can be called great, but so that we may boast in Christ’s glorious.
“Do not be cast down over the struggle - the Lord loves a brave warrior. The Lord loves the soul that is valiant” — St. Silouan the Athonite.