"Grit" by Angela Duckworth
Ever thought about grit?????It's this?unique combination of passion and perseverance, crucial for achieving long-term goals. ????
Grit is the driving force that helps you maintain your commitment through the ups and downs, fueling continuous effort toward your ambitions. It's about not giving up in the face of adversity but persisting enthusiastically on the long road to mastery. Ready to tap into your grit and transform challenges into triumphs? ???
Key Idea 1
Grit, not talent or intelligence, predicts success and can be developed.
Grit is the combination of passion and perseverance that allows people to achieve remarkable success. Angela Duckworth, a psychologist, studied grit at West Point military academy, where despite an intensive admissions process, many cadets drop out during the grueling summer training called Beast Barracks.
She found grit, not talent or intelligence, predicted who would complete the program. This surprising finding that talent alone does not lead to achievement occurred across other challenging domains too like sales, education, the spelling bee, and the Green Berets. Grit mattered more than IQ, conscientiousness or leadership ability in predicting success. But grit isn't fixed; it can be developed by finding your passion and persevering through challenges. With grit, people can achieve their potential.
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Key Idea 2
Success depends on persistent effort, not just innate talent.
Talent alone doesn't ensure success; hard work and perseverance are equally vital. Angela Duckworth, once a teacher, observed that her most talented math students often didn't achieve the highest grades due to lack of effort. In contrast, students who initially struggled but worked hard frequently excelled, demonstrating that success isn't solely determined by natural aptitude but also by sustained effort.
Psychologist William James noted that many people don't reach their full potential because they fail to fully utilize their abilities. With significant determination and persistent effort, individuals can surpass what their talent alone might suggest. However, cultural biases favor the notion that achievement is primarily based on natural talent, celebrating prodigies and naturals while undermining the critical role of diligence.
Research indicates that consistent practice is more crucial than innate talent in areas like music and business. Gritty individuals who consistently work toward long-term goals often outperform those with natural gifts who lack persistent effort. While talent offers an initial advantage, it must be paired with motivation and perseverance to realize full potential.
Key Idea 3
Enduring commitment and consistent effort surpass talent in achieving mastery.
Effort counts twice in achievement. Talent is how quickly skills improve with effort. But effort also determines the productivity of skill. So someone with less talent can surpass the accomplishments of someone with more talent by working harder.
This is illustrated by many examples. John Irving overcame early struggles with dyslexia to become a bestselling author through tremendous effort rewriting drafts. Will Smith credits his success more to ridiculous work ethic than natural talent. Researchers found that how long people persevered on an exhausting treadmill test at age 20 predicted their psychological well-being at age 60, regardless of physical fitness.
Grit is not just effort in the moment but also having the stamina to get back on the treadmill day after day. Many people quit too early and too often. Consistency of effort over the long run is essential to skill development and achievement. Our skills compound over time only if we persist. Without consistent effort, talent and skill remain unfulfilled potential. Mastery and accomplishment require enduring commitment.
Key Idea 4
Grit is the long-term commitment to goals underpinned by passion, focus, and cohesive goal structures.
Grit is about having passion and perseverance for long-term goals. Gritty people stay committed to their goals over years or decades. Grit involves working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. Grit has little to do with intensity but rather stamina.
Grit entails having coherent goal structures. Gritty people have top-level goals that give meaning to lower-level goals. Their goal hierarchies are unified by overarching purpose and values. Gritty people stay focused on their top goals while avoiding unrelated pursuits. Though grit does not require laser-like focus on a single goal, having one ultimate professional goal enables gritty people to align their efforts.
To develop grit, it helps to identify your passion, create goal hierarchies, and prioritize efforts according to long-term purpose. With clear goal structures, you can pursue your top goals in an enduring, steady way. Grit allows you to stay loyal to meaningful life pursuits over time.
Key Idea 5
Grit develops through maturation, cultivating interest, practice, purpose, and overcoming adversity.
Grit grows as we mature and gain life experience. Though some are born grittier than others due to genetics, grit is not entirely fixed and can be developed.
Initially, interest is key - finding intrinsic enjoyment in an activity or endeavor. With passion ignited, focused practice follows. Through daily discipline and repeated challenge, skills are honed. Complacency is resisted and weaknesses targeted, no matter how excellent one already is.
As dedication endures, purpose ripens passion. The conviction that your work matters beyond just personal interest becomes imperative to sustain motivation. Integrally connecting your interests to the wellbeing of others provides meaning.
Hope enables rising to the occasion perseverance. From beginning to end, learning to persist despite difficulties and doubts is essential. Setbacks are expected but grit prevails by continually getting back up.
With each life experience, these four psychological assets can be learned - interest, practice, purpose and hope. By understanding where you are today and developing these qualities over time, grit grows from the inside out.
Key Idea 6
Grit arises from nurturing interest, deliberate practice, purposeful contribution, and hopeful resilience.
Grit develops from within, driven by four key elements: interest, practice, purpose, and hope.
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Interest must be nurtured over time through exploration and experimentation. Beginners need encouragement and the freedom to discover what motivates them. Small wins early on can deepen interests into passions. Instead of searching for one singular passion, individuals should engage in diverse activities, sticking with those that captivate them, and remain open to the complexities that unfold as expertise grows.
Practice is crucial in developing expertise. Deliberate practice, which is focused and effortful, targets specific skills and is essential for mastery. This type of practice requires setting clear goals, receiving immediate feedback, and continuous skill refinement. Over time, challenging practice can lead to mastery, where skills once difficult become second nature.
Purpose, the desire to contribute to the well-being of others, significantly enhances motivation and satisfaction. It transforms personal interests and practices into a broader mission, creating a powerful motivational force. Purpose can emerge from life experiences or the influence of role models, aligning personal values with a greater good. Reflecting on how one’s actions benefit others can turn any job into a calling.
Hope is the belief that one's efforts will improve their future. It is fostered by overcoming challenges and learning from setbacks. Adopting a growth mindset, where abilities are seen as improvable through effort, fosters resilience. Optimistic self-talk and seeking support during tough times are practices that sustain hope and perseverance.
Together, these drivers intertwine to form grit, propelling individuals toward achieving their long-term goals.
Key Idea 7
Parenting for grit combines support and demand, inspiring children's confidence and motivation.
Parenting for grit is about being both supportive and demanding. Supportive parenting provides children with warmth, respect and unconditional love.
Demanding parenting sets high expectations and enforces consequences. The combination of high support and high demands is called authoritative or wise parenting. Wise parents model grit by being passionate, persevering role models. They balance listening and questioning with clear rules and discipline.
This encourages children to emulate their example. Beyond parents, teachers and mentors can also parent for grit. With the right message of caring and high expectations, they build confidence and motivation in children. Ultimately, grit comes from a supportive ecosystem that helps individuals believe in their potential. By parenting with wisdom, we enable the next generation to find purpose and cultivate lifelong passion.
Key Idea 8
Structured activities facilitate grit development through perseverance practice and intrinsic motivation.
A 4-year-old girl named Lucy struggled to open a box of raisins, gave up, and walked away. Her mother, worried that this showed a lack of grit, signed Lucy up for ballet class. The mother believed structured activities like ballet help children develop passion and perseverance.
Research on extracurricular activities shows participating in them predicts better life outcomes. When students do activities for multiple years and advance in them, the benefits are even greater. One study found high schoolers who did the same activity for 2+ years were more likely to graduate college and volunteer as young adults. The key was multiyear commitment and progress, not the specific activity.
Activities offer a place to practice grit since they involve adult leaders, intrinsic motivation, and progress through deliberate practice. Doing hard things teaches the connection between effort and reward. Animals and people default to laziness without directly experiencing this. With activities, kids get to try, fail, and try again, developing hope. Coaches and teachers provide supportive demands.
Key Idea 9
Pete Carroll fosters a 'gritty culture' in the Seahawks, focusing on support, challenge, and resilience.
Pete Carroll was the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks football team. Pete became fascinated with the concept of grit after watching a TED talk on the subject. He reached out to the researcher, Angela, to learn more, feeling her work aligned with his coaching philosophy.
Pete aims to build the "grittiest culture" in the NFL through the Seahawks. He instills key concepts like "Always Compete" which means striving for excellence, not just defeating opponents. Pete treats players like his own kids, providing support and challenge to bring out their best. This developmental model contrasts with hazing rituals and survival-of-the-fittest mentalities of the past.
The Seahawks made the Super Bowl two years in a row, but lost the second time in a crushing last-minute play. Nevertheless, Pete rebounded with courage and resolve, using it as an opportunity for growth. His gritty culture emphasizes learning from failures and finishing strong. The story ends with the author grasping how Pete and the Seahawks found the will to continue in the face of disappointment. Their grit emerges from a culture of support, challenge, and character.
Key Idea 10
Grit, balanced with morality and curiosity, fosters achievement and well-rounded living.
Success depends on grit—passion and perseverance for long-term goals. Grit grows from the inside out through cultivating interests, practicing skills, connecting work to purpose, and hoping when hope seems lost. It also grows from the outside in through the influence of parents, teachers, mentors and friends. While grit leads to achievement, it does not guarantee happiness. Grit must be balanced with other virtues like goodness, morality and curiosity to live a well-rounded life. Few have too much grit; many would benefit from more. Writing is grit in action, repeatedly facing failure and rejection, refinement and perseverance. Genius is not achieving without effort, but tirelessly working toward excellence. With grit, we all can be geniuses.
Final?Summary
"Grit" by Angela Duckworth is a powerful exploration of the concept of grit - a combination of passion and perseverance, and its relevance to achieving success.
10 Actions to reflect the learnings:
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