I’ve been thinking a lot about perseverance.

Tenacity.

Grit.

I remember having so much trouble getting into a doctoral program, that once I was in, I was astonished by how often some folks would tell me the hard part was over, I just had to do it now. If I got in, it could be done.

And yet, about 50% of PhD students don’t graduate.

Then I was thinking about all the weight I lost at the end of the pandemic. How wildly tedious it was to count calories in all my foods and get it together to go swim laps even when I didn’t want.

And then how easy it was for all those habits to dissolve the second I let them.

And how unpleasant is has been to get back into the groove with all that a bit recently.

I often wonder if I have enough grit to succeed at this particular challenge.

And then I think about personal finance. Prioritizing funding my emergency savings. Keeping the heat miserably low at times so I can still afford to pay all my bills and do fun things – because heat is not as much fun as a weekend getaway or splurging on a fancy meal when friends come to visit.

These things require a tenacity too.

It seems like some tenacity go pretty far though.

For instance, this entire PhD venture is funded on earlier tenacity. The grit to save money even when I didn’t want to, to live in situations I didn’t exactly love.

It’s funded on earlier academic tenacity to do well enough to be able to get into school.

Even the best bits of this adventure, living in a foreign country and exploring some of the surrounding areas, funded by earlier tenacity. Because I have definitely just spent two years spending more than I make, but able to make it work due to savings.

I’m also struck by how grit, while it never stops sucking completely, does get less difficult with time. But also how there does seem to be a point where it’s possible to max out, at least temporarily on perseverance – or whatever makes up the ability to stick it out.

I feel like I hit the wall with it sometimes, when I’m doing a lot of difficult things. It’s like when I would work crazy hours out on tours and I just knew I did not have the discipline to do any kind of exercising or even really caring much about my diet.

But I was pretty good at my job.

Similarly, when I moved to the UK and was overwhelmed with setting up a life here and becoming a full time student, the same exercising and eating healthy discipline slipped a bit.

And the saving money discipline slipped a bit.

But as navigating this country and life as a PhD student slipped into more of a routine, albeit one that still requires some grit, I’ve been able to step up my perseverance of my other goals.

It’s like a never-ending seesaw of hard things with really great benefits if I can keep it together.

Anyone out there actually balancing it all well? Got any tips? I’m not sure this post actually had any, but if you also feel overwhelmed by the amount of things in your life requiring a fair bit of grit, please know that you’re not alone. And if one of those areas slips, we can pull it back together down the road a bit.