TRUE GRIT

This world feels upside-down. And as I watch corporations and billionaires concentrate power and money within their ranks… manipulating laws, rewriting rules, and calling it success… I find myself wondering if we've lost sight of what strength, courage, and integrity actually look like. Or maybe I'm just finally owning what I believe they mean.

This culture worships wealth and power. It rewards people who play the game loudly and ruthlessly. And sure, anyone can make money and accumulate influence by those rules. But that's not the kind of success that interests me, and I daresay it never has.

What actually takes grit? What actually requires courage?

Looking inward does. Acknowledging your shortcomings, honestly, without self-flagellation, takes more courage than any boardroom power move. And so does celebrating your strengths, because somewhere along the way, most of us were taught that was arrogance, especially if you were a woman. It isn't. Knowing what you're good at and owning it is an act of integrity.

It takes determination to understand who you are and stand in it, especially when the people around you are more comfortable with a version of you that's smaller, quieter, more convenient. It takes heart to feel your feelings all the way through rather than managing them into something safe and more presentable. It takes vulnerability to express what you feel, not just what you think. And it takes real moxie to say what's true for you even when you know you'll stand alone or ruffle feathers.

Here's the part no one talks about, though. It also takes broad-mindedness. Saying what you believe while genuinely leaving room for someone else to express a different opinion, and finding a way to exist that honors you both. Staying curious about perspectives that challenge yours. That's not a weakness. That's the harder path.

And underneath all of it, it takes faith. Faith in yourself as you put yourself out there, knowing full well that some people won't like what they see. It takes willingness to make mistakes, grace to forgive yourself when you do, and the fortitude to get back up and try again, not because you have to, but because you're not done yet.

This is what I mean when I talk about true grit. Not toughness for its own sake. Not pushing through at any cost. But the quiet, persistent, sometimes messy work of becoming someone who actually knows themselves. Someone who can cry and rage and laugh and rest and still find their way back to what's true.

There is nothing wrong with money, success, or influence. But we are being called to something deeper right now in how we relate to ourselves, to each other, to this crumbling and reforming world. That call deserves more than ambition. It deserves presence. Honesty. A willingness to be seen.

That's the game worth playing, in my book.