Grit Isn't Enough
The Misconceptions of Grit: When Strength Becomes a Weakness with Amberly Lago
“Grit without connection is just resistance. It’s hitting roadblocks, hitting rock bottom, or worse – it’s addiction, it’s death.”
?Amberly Lago, Author, Speaker, Mother, and Overcomer
Angela Duckworth famously penned her work Grit after researching why her best middle school students weren't the smartest.
Those students had a quality about them that gave them the push to accomplish and achieve more.
In the years since that work was published in 2016, we as a society have worked hard to see, express, and quantify grit.
Before the book Grit, when someone mentioned grit, you might as well have thought of sandpaper, as you might have the internal quality to persevere.
I often think about my grit. It has never been something to prove or display. I’d call it merely a piece of my makeup.
It was honed from years of no other option and repetitiveness.
Any grit I have was developed working on my family farm and, in the years since, working with my hands, whether with cows, doing construction projects, fixing and installing irrigation and fenceposts, or demolishing walls in a ninety-year-old building.
Those actions honed the mindset of ‘keep going until it's done or the day ends.’ There was always an understanding that tomorrow would be the same—more to do and chores to attend to
My Grit
But what about the parts that are hard to specify by actions? Did my GRIT serve me well in dealing with years of never feeling good enough?
Did my GRIT help me deal with challenging times, relationship struggles, and traumatic events?
Did my GRIT allow me to survive but not truly thrive?
Grit isn't enough, and the circumstances in which we as a society seem to use our grit to excel may bring our demise.