I am not a gifted person.

My entire life I’ve been waiting to be naturally good at something:

• Trying to do a bunny hop on my bike
• Trying to do tricks on my skateboard
• Trying to play in tune on my cello
• Trying to get good grades in school
• Try to run a business
• Trying to be outgoing and charismatic

Everything takes me longer than most people I know.

A high school teacher once called me a late bloomer.

Simply, nothing comes easy for me.

The way I learn is by doing.

I just try and try and try.

The only gift I have been given is persistence.

I am a bull dog of determination.

And that has made all the difference.

Rocky pointed out a recent Seth Godin blog post: Seth’s Blog: Do the (extra) work

She said it reminded her of me.

The premise is that doing more work is a habit that becomes priceless.

I’ve had no choice but to do more work. If I wanted to amount to a hill of beans I’ve had to do more work.

It has just become a way of life. There is no other way for me.

By the time I got to college, school had become easy because it was so hard in high school. I got a 3.5 gpa, the best social life you could ask for and I also taught 15-20 cello lessons on the weekends. There was nothing to it.

Yesterday I finished my first door:

I put the hole in the wall, rewired the electric, put in the door and last night I put the trim on.

I’ve found that I’ve recently become handy.

It’s not because I’m naturally handy.

But what I discovered is that being handy just means you are patient and you don’t give up.

Of course I’m “handy.” It’s baked into my DNA.

Plain and simple, I am a grinder. I grind everything out.

The reason I tell you this story is because I suspect there are things in your life that you probably feel this way about.

You can’t get something done. You can’t figure something out.

If you have determined this mountain in your life is worth climbing then I’m here to tell you, you have been given a gift.

There is one thing I know about being a grinder: I often times become better at the thing I had to fight for than the person who could do it naturally.

The natural quits early.

The natural was told early on how amazing they were. That they had a “gift.”

The grinder was never told (or believed) any of that. In fact, the grinder was rarely believed in at all. Until.

That’s amusing. Then people act like they believed in the grinder from the beginning. But that’s a whole other story.

The grinder typically surpasses the natural in most things.

It’s very rare that a natural is also bestowed the gift of grinding. It happens and then you see greatness like none other. Picasso is a great example.

Most times in regular life the grinder surpasses the natural.

It becomes no harder for the grinder to become really good at something than it was for them to do the thing in its beginning, rudimentary form.

If you are struggling for something you really want just realize you are on the path to being great.

The struggle is what will make you great.

Not being natural is what you want.

So live in your hardship, pain and suffering. It is a path that ends in greatness.

Just don’t stop.