GRIT

Our topics of discussion on the ACE Dental Forum are far reaching.One of my favorite people on ACE is not a dentist but a clinical psychologist. Dr. June Darling posted the following on the forum today:

Gerald and I have talked a lot about high performance. Gerald's life is a study in grit and perseverance. If there's a way of instilling that into our children, I believe it goes a long way in helping them be resilient and successful.

I did a LOT of stuff wrong with my children. I wish I would have known then what I know now. One brief thing that I did do right almost by accident did seem to have a big impact on Hoby (in terms of learning more about "grit.")

He really wanted to swim as a little guy. I had heard that one of the best ways to help kids swim was to get them on a swim team. So we went to sign ups. When we get there they tell us that all these little kids have to be able to swim the width of the pool. What??? (I thought they would teach them. We'd never really spent much time around water)

They line all these little tykes up. The kids jump in and start swimming away. Hoby is just trying to get across the pool any way he can. All the moms are on the other side of the pool and are telling me/screaming at me to pull Hoby out, he's going to drown. All the other little kids are across the pool. I'm biting my lip. I know this is an important moment - it really is sink or swim. But I decided that I had to show that I believed he could do it and give him every ounce of opportunity to try it. It took him forever to get to the other side of the pool, I'm crying, but he makes it - totally exhausted.

By the time he was ten, he had all broken all the swimming records.

The reason I remember this is because a Jehovah Witness lady came by my house last week. She looked at me and said..."Oh, yeah, I remember you. You're Hoby's mom. Do you remember that time at the pool? I sure thought that little kid was going to drown."

I'm really a softie. It's awfully hard for me to see people struggle and I know the tremendous value of stretching the grit muscles. I admire a number of dentists who show a tremendous amount of grit. Gerald is one of my favorite examples of true grit.

I love examples of grit. Rocky stories.

Dr. Darling loves my stories of struggles in life and my profession: My three years of rejection from almost every dental in the United States or my car accident in which my right leg was amputated in a car accident and surgically reattached so that I could resume my dental studies and graduate with my dental school class and even go on to run 5 miles. Or my 20 year efforts to study with the best of the world so that I could, one day, be like them even if it means forgoing vacations for 26 years in a row.

Dr. Darling's search is to find out WHY we are like we are...and that certainly will be a life long study. In the mean time, I just continue to do what I love to do...Beautifully restoring your teeth and keeping your mouth healthy...What a great job!