It is true.  We are not each given the same position at the starting line in life.  Some of us are born with advantages, those relating to nature and to nurture, and that is just the way it is.  Booker T. Washington once said, “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.”  Researchers have found that not only does conquering adversity make us stronger, it is actually vital to succeed and thrive in this world.  It makes us more resilient.

So what is resilience?  In 1989 a developmental psychologist named Emmy Werner published the results of a thirty-two-year longitudinal project. She had followed a group of six hundred and ninety-eight children, in Kauai, Hawaii, from before birth through their third decade of life. From a young age, resilient children tended to “meet the world on their own terms.” They were autonomous and independent, would seek out new experiences, and had a “positive social orientation.” “Though not especially gifted, these children used whatever skills they had effectively,” Werner wrote. Perhaps most importantly, the resilient children had what psychologists call an “internal locus of control”: they believed that they, and not their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the orchestrators of their own fates.

What else?  The supportive context of affirming faith or cultural traditions tended to produce more resilient children (read: F3).  The message?  We are not responsible for the inputs – our parents, how much money they made, the schools we went to, etc. – but we are responsible for the outputs and we can create environments that help us grow.

Grit is a very close cousin to resilience.  Angela Duckworth, a UPenn professor, has written extensively on the topic, and I recommend her book to anyone interested.  Aside from defining grit in a new way that took the world by storm, what struck me most about the book is her breakdown of talent x effort = skill, and then, skill x effort = achievement.

It’s dangerously simplistic, but helpful in illuminating the common variable over which we have control, effort.  Distill down what matters to just about anyone trying to succeed in any job and you will find effort – show up each day, do the work, and yeah, waver a bit here and there, get lucky a bit we hope, but stay consistent, hungry and humble and good things will happen.  Sure, you got me, it is not the only formula for success, but it is one, and it is one that I like very much.  I know you cannot unequivocally regress to grit or resilience as the major determining factor in why we succeed, and I think if you are looking for that you might be missing the point.

So to celebrate adversity and resilience, 26 of my gritty friends showed up this morning to the Falcon to see how we could make life difficult for ourselves, and we mostly did that by eliminating limbs from our exercises:

• Mosey to the parking lot near the tennis courts down near the football field.
• Line up on the sidewalk.  Sprint to the other side, backwards run in return, 2 burpees.
• Repeato with 4, 8, 16, 32 burpees.
• Mosey to the big hill.
• Partner up, broken wheelbarrow to the speed limit sign (switching on and off).  Crab walk down.
• One-legged traveling burpee to the top, bear crawl down.
• 50 dips, run as fast as you can to Garret and back down to the traffic circle, 10 burpees.

Mary:  50 flutter kicks.

Moleskine:  It was great seeing guys I haven’t seen in a long time.  What I find really great about F3 is that we are forced to be pretty efficient with conversations when we are working out.  We just don’t have a ton of breath or brainpower in some cases.  So you just drive down to what matters pretty quickly and I find it very satisfying.  Quality > Quantity all day, every day, and twice on Sunday!