Growing Leaders founder Dr. Tim Elmore is passionate about understanding the emerging generation and helping adults teach them how to become leaders in their schools, their communities and their careers.

As a youth leadership expert and thought leader in his field, he educates adults to help them understand the challenges and experiences today’s generation faces and connect with them in a way that resonates. Dr. Elmore believes, by cultivating leadership abilities in young adults and encouraging the adults who guide them, Growing Leaders can be the catalyst for emerging generations that will truly change the world.

Dr. Tim Elmore teaches leadership courses and speaks at schools, universities, business, and athletic programs. He has trained thousands of leaders in partnership with nationally renowned schools and organizations like the San Francisco Giants, Home Depot, Stanford University, Virginia Tech, University of Alabama Athletics, Duke University, University of Texas, Chick-fil-a, Cici’s Pizza, Delta, and more.

Dr. Elmore has also authored more than 30 books including: Habitudes®: Images that Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes, Artificial Maturity: Helping Kids Meet the Challenge of Becoming Authentic Adults, Generation iY: Secrets to Connecting With Today’s Teens & Young Adults in the Digital Age, 12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid, Life Giving Mentors, and Nurturing the Leader Within Your Child.

Mental toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be worked to grow and develop.

Choose to do the tenth rep when it would be easier to just do nine. Choose to create when it would be easier to consume. Choose to ask the extra question when it would be easier to accept. Prove to yourself—in a thousand tiny ways— that you do have what it takes to conquer a mountain. Too frequently, we think grit is about how we respond to extreme situations, but what about common circumstances? The best way to develop mental strength is to slowly build gritty steps into your routines, little by little. Then add a step each week.

Grit isn’t about getting an incredible dose of inspiration. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions—over and over and over again. Don’t wait for motivation to sneak up on you. Mentally tough people don’t have to be more talented or more intelligent—just more consistent. Grit comes down to your habits. It’s about doing the things you know you’re supposed to do on a more consistent basis. It’s about your dedication to daily practice and your ability to stick to a schedule.

Gene Tunney proved to everyone what mental toughness can do. Will you?

INFLUNSR. defines grit as choosing passion over distraction. 

Philippians 4:8 says “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” If grit depends on muscle memory and not motivation, how and why does what Paul writes here so important to your grit development? Let’s talk about this at length in the Circle…

The national struggle for women’s suffrage mobilized on March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), in collaboration with activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, organized a suffrage parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. The march began at the Peace Monument near the Capitol, passed alongside the White House, and ended with a rally at Memorial Continental Hall.

Over 5,000 women marched for suffrage but their peaceful procession was disrupted by a “surging mass of humanity that completely defied the Washington police.” Army cavalry stationed at nearby Fort Myer restored order for the parading women. The suffragists were led by Grand Marshal of the procession May Jane Walker Burleson, “General” Rosalie Jones, Inez Milholland, and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of NAWSA.

The chaos prompted a Senate inquiry into the mishandling of the crowds. Legislators questioned policemen and their tactics, as wells as dozens of women who testified that they were insulted or injured by the throngs of people…

Four years later, as the country prepared for war, tensions and conflict emerged between different groups of Americans. Many government officials and citizens interpreted wartime protests as public acts of disloyalty; as such, both authorities and crowds directed their anger toward any dissidents. As the “Silent Sentinels” picketed the White House during the summer of 1917, White House policemen continuously arrested the suffragists on charges of unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, and disrupting traffic. Suffragists were fined but they generally refused to pay out of protest. As their actions became more disruptive, authorities levied harsher sentences, sending the picketers to Occoquan Workhouse and Penitentiary in Lorton, Virginia. Masses appeared to watch the women demonstrate, though these spectators were not always peaceful themselves. Some incited violence by accosting the women and destroying their banners. In one instance, a group vandalized the NWP headquarters with “eggs, tomatoes, missiles of various sorts.”

As this neighborhood melee unfolded, President Wilson began to soften his stance on women’s suffrage. Perhaps it was the president’s daughter, Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre, who persuaded her father to soften his stance – though the more likely explanation was that Wilson realized this anti-suffrage position would cost the Democratic Party seats in Congress.

That fall he expressed verbal support for the suffrage campaign in New York, but ultimately the reports of how suffragists were mistreated in Occoquan convinced Wilson to intervene on moral grounds. One Washington Post story described how Alice Paul, recently sentenced to six months in a workhouse for picketing, was subjected to physical and mental examinations by five physicians against her will. When Paul started a hunger strike out of protest at the District workhouse she was “forcibly fed twice…through a tube.”

Several days after the printing of Paul’s experience, the “Night of Terror” took place on November 14. The 33 suffragists imprisoned at Occoquan were “brutally handled by the guards and subjected to indignities” for refusing to work or eat. In obtaining a writ of habeas corpus for the women, NWP counsel Dudley Field Malone argued that the women “were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment,” citing Lucy Burns’ diary and their injuries as proof. 

The reports of abuse appalled President Wilson, prompting him to immediately pardon the prisoners and join the suffrage crusade.

In December 1917 the president forcefully advocated for women’s suffrage in his sixth annual address to Congress, arguing that women had earned the right to vote by performing traditional duties while bearing the burden of new wartime responsibilities. “The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country,” articulated Wilson. “These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice.”

Nearly a month later, President Wilson delivered his famous “Fourteen Points” speech to Congress on January 8, 1918. The president outlined his vision for a new world order built on the American ideals of democracy and freedom. At a White House conference the next day, Wilson stunned everyone by publicly declaring his support for a women’s suffrage constitutional amendment.

Wilson’s policy reversal did little to appease suffragists. They continued to picket the Executive Mansion and hold public burnings of any speech where Wilson mentioned the words ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom.’ After the Senate initially failed to pass the amendment in early 1919, suffrage supporters ramped up public protests and demonstrations. Their persistent pressure on the president and the incoming Congress produced political results later that spring. On May 21, 1919 the Susan B. Anthony Amendment passed 304-89 in the House of Representatives; on June 4 it cleared the Senate by a vote of 56-25.

Alice Paul, who suffered appalling treatment at Occoquan, celebrated the news by unfurling a massive ratification banner at 14 Jackson Place. The banner, decorated with 36 stars, each representing a state that had approved the Nineteenth Amendment, symbolized the national and state-level successes achieved by the suffragists. While some of their tactics were considered radical for the time, suffragists persevered by demonstrating their willingness to fight for equality. Their struggles—with members of Congress, angry crowds, policemen and guards, anti-suffragists, and President Wilson himself—gave momentum to the movement, drawing more supporters to their cause. The gross mistreatment of suffragists gave them a moral high ground, one that President Wilson eventually felt compelled to join. As the United States projected the merits of democracy abroad, its representatives now answered to citizens, both male and female, at home.

INFLUNSR. defines grit as choosing passion over distraction. It has been said that, “The arc of a moral universe is long, and it bends toward justice… but it only bends if there are people insisting that it swerve.” What does the grit of women like Alice Paul and others teach you about passion over distraction and the need for people insisting that the “arc of a moral universe swerve?” What are your thoughts regarding the significance of a woman becoming Vice President elect within the scope of the grit of women over one hundred years ago? Let’s discuss this in the Circle…

We asked you ask for your parents or guardian’s permission, connect to Apple TV+ or Disney Plus and watch the much-anticipated film Mulan. Acclaimed filmmaker Niki Caro brings the epic tale of China’s legendary warrior to life in Disney’s Mulan, in which a fearless young woman risks everything out of love for her family and her country to become one of the greatest warriors China has ever known. When the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her inner-strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey that will transform her into an honored warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation…and a proud father.

Yifel Liu (actor who played Mulan) overcame jet lag and showed up for the audition the day after her 14-hour flight from Beijing to Los Angeles. She performed four scenes for her audition, one of which was five pages long, and completed a full 90 minutes of weight training immediately following her two-hour audition. 

INFLUNSR defines grit as choosing passion over distraction. Mulan was not what Chinese society thought a girl should be. What did this have to do with her decision to substitute for her father? Has there even been a time you were told you couldn’t do something because of the way you look or your abilities? Have you ever seen this happen to someone else? What can you do about it? Out of everyone in your family, who would flip a table over spiders? Who would win in a sword fight? Why is it so important not to give up hope even at our hardest moments? Let’s wrestle with this in the Circle…

We asked you to listen to an episode of the Hope Through History podcast titled FDR and the Great Depression. Following a decade of roaring prosperity in America, something invincible was proving vulnerable. The Great Depression was ravaging the economy and destroying lives, creating a dire need for bold, honest leadership. With the help of Pulitzer Prize-winners Doris Kearns Goodwin and David M. Kennedy, along with Allida Black, the Director of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Jon Meacham delivers a vivid and intimate look at a President who countered depression with action, and who conquered fear with hope.

In the winter of 1932, ’33, one out of every four American men is out of work. There are predictions that there would be a revolution in the country. There were riots over food and scarcity in the Midwest. FDR, on the night he became president, an aide came to him and said, “Mr. President, if you succeed in solving the crisis of the Depression, you’ll go down as our greatest president, but if you fail, you’ll go down as our worst.” And FDR looked at him and said, “If I fail, I’ll go down as our last.”

Jon Meacham has been quoted as saying, “History is the only data set we have about where we are and where we should go. It is the story of great nobility and our worst derelictions. And so if we don’t draw lessons from the moments of great nobility and warnings from the terrible derelictions, then we confront the present and the future without sufficient arms.” How does FDR inspire grit in you?

We asked you to watch the Twitter post by Jack Patterson. 

A year-old clip re-emerged on Twitter last week of ESPN’s Marty Smith offering encouragement to a young TV reporter — and it’s a tremendous lesson to us all.

Reporter Jack Patterson stumbled on his words last November performing a stand up following an LSU-Alabama college football game. That’s when Smith swooped in.

“Don’t let nobody tell you it ain’t, man,” Smith tells the starstruck Patterson. “The hardest part of our job is what you’re doing right now. The taped stand up, I hate ’em, man. If you’re live and you kind of mess up, whatever, you just keep on digging. This thing, you want to be just perfect.”

How often do we as influencers get so caught up in our own deal, crossing items off our to-do list, that we neglect everyone around us who may be discouraged? We advance up the mountain after a struggle, then lose all empathy for those just beginning their climb. Marty Smith is a household name to ESPN viewers who has achieved remarkable success over his career, but here, he’s just an ordinary guy trying to make someone’s life a little better. 

We asked you to offer some assistance to someone you wouldn’t otherwise who’s choosing distraction over passion. Improving a life doesn’t require a ton of money or hours of your time. It simply takes a bit of compassion. And grit is contagious. Time to dive into this in the Circle…

We asked you to read the Behavioral Scientist article titled Time Confetti and the Broken Promise of Leisure.

It’s true: we have more time for leisure than we did fifty years ago. But leisure has never been less relaxing, mostly because of the disinter-mediating effects of our screens. Technology saves us time, but it also takes it away. This is known as the autonomy paradox. We adopt mobile technologies to gain autonomy over when and how long we work, yet, ironically, we end up working all the time. Long blocks of free time we used to enjoy are now interrupted constantly by our smart watches, phones, tablets, and laptops.

Let’s think about grit within the context of “time confetti.” INFLUNSR. defines grit as choosing passion over distraction. Ashley Whillans writes that “Time poverty feels the same for everyone, but time affluence looks different for everyone. It could mean spending fifteen more minutes strumming the guitar instead of scrolling through your phone, or it could be ten minutes of meditation, or a Saturday morning learning how to invest your savings instead of slacking about gossip. No matter what time affluence looks like for you, the happiest and most time affluent among us are deliberate with their free time. Working toward time affluence is about recognizing and overcoming the time traps in our lives and intentionally carving out happier and more meaningful moments each day.” How do you need to be more gritty with your time? Journal your thoughts. Let’s discuss this in the Circle…

We asked you to read the Fast Company article titled Three Essential Leadership Lessons for Our Current Crisis.

These Harvard Business School coauthors — Nancy Koehn and Eugene B. Kogan —  of a forthcoming case study on the Cuban Missile Crisis argue that current U.S. leaders are neglecting three essential tactics that enabled the Kennedy administration to avoid global annihilation nearly 60 years ago.

Koehn and Kogan write that “Courage and crisis have a symbiotic relationship. Crises make serious leaders better, and courageous, emotionally intelligent leaders become indispensable in crises.” If choosing passion over distraction is a foundational choice of great leaders, how does grit mesh with courage and crisis? Why does grit matter when you need to be brave? 

Disclaimer:

INFLUNSR’s mission is to fuel the next generation of leaders worth following and to help students learn how to think, not what to think. Any articles posted and questions asked are intended for that sole purpose.