Courage and Grit are key components to success. Failure builds grit. Grit fuels courage. When you recognize that there are lessons in defeat and that perseverance is imperative to high achievement; whether on the ice rink or in the classroom; you forge your character, cultivate your courage and pursue excellence.

“Some of the grittiest people I’ve known lack the luxury to consider the big picture and instead must react to immediate needs,” writes Margaret Perlis in an article for Forbes Magazine. “This doesn’t diminish the value of their fortitude, but rather underscores that grit perhaps is more about attitude than an end game.” She goes on to write, “Courage is like a muscle; it has to be exercised daily. If you do, it will grow; ignored, it will atrophy.  Courage helps fuel grit; the two are symbiotic, feeding into and off of each other…and you need to manage each and how they are functioning together.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strived valiantly; who errs, who comes again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

Teddy Roosevelt