GRIT

Just finished Book No.2 of 52 this year… “GRIT” by? Angela Duckworth . Following many studies and conversations, Angela explores the power of Passion and Perseverance and argues that an individual's grit is a better predictor of long-term success, more than talent or IQ. Grit is a combination of passion and perseverance for long-term goals.

Grit is displayed by those with ferocious determination in a number of ways:

• Resilient and hardworking
• Knowledge in a deep way about what they want.
• Have determination and direction.
• A combination of passion and perseverance that make high achievers special. This is called “Grit”.

Darwin’s opinion on the determinants of achievement were underpinned by zeal and hard work (passion and perseverance) and are ultimately more important than intellectual ability. Human potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.

Effort Counts Twice

Talent is the sum of a person’s abilities – his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, drive and ability to learn.

Talent alone falls short of explaining achievement. Angela outlines a simple equation to get from talent to achievement:

Talent x Effort = Skill

Skill x Effort = Achievement

Talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them. Effort builds skill and make skill productive. So achievement depends on talent and effort.?

Sustaining Grit

Effort and sustained “trying” produces mastery. It can require patience and there are no shortcuts to excellence. Grit is working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it for long periods of time, often years. Doing what you love, falling in love and staying in love is important to endure the journey with “Grit”

Goals are vital and can be split into 3 types: Top, Mid and Low… organised in hierarchy.

Grit is holding the same the top-level goal for a very long time. It is a Life philosophy. To enable grit, coherent goals are required.

LOOK AT GOALS and ensure the right goals have been selected as you dedicate precious time over many years to them and it would be a waste to expend so much energy on the wrong goals.

Gritty people:

• Work towards a definite goal which can be in the distance
• Have a tendency not to abandon tasks. Are not continually looking for change
• Have a high degree of will or perseverance. Quiet determination to stick to course once decided upon
• They don’t abandon tasks in the face of obstacles.

When faced with rejection or failure on a low-level task, gritty people may be disappointed but not for long, they soon replace it. Green berets live by a mantra “improvise, adapt, overcome”, as things always change when on the ground.

Passion, Interest and Hope?

Desire and passion and the strength of our interest have a direct correlation with happiness, performance and the grit to persevere. “Follow your passion” is a common term we hear, particularly when young. If you can make money from something you love, you then get paid for your hobby!!!

It’s hard to work doggedly on something we don’t find intrinsically interesting. Interest is the desire to learn new things, to seek novelty, to be on the lookout for change and variety - it’s a basic driver.?

Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening that knowledge. Interests are not discovered through introspection, they are triggered by interactions with the outside world and they thrive when you have a crew of supporters. Positive feedback makes us feel happy, competent and secure.

It’s important find ways to keep triggering interests to keep them alive. Seek out people with similar interests, perhaps sidle to an encouraging mentor. It takes time for knowledge and expertise to grow, along with confidence and curiosity to know more.

Interest is one source of passion. Purpose (the intention to contribute to the well-being of others) is another. Gritty people depend on both passion and purpose.

Mega-successful people seem to have “Kaizen” (Japanese for resisting the plateau of arrested development). This translates to continuous development. Learning and development in the pursuit of mastery.

Hope is important to sustain Passion. Generally, hope is the expectation that tomorrow will be better than today. i.e. the weather, where the onus is on the universe to make things better. Grit depends on a different kind of hope. The expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. Nothing to do with luck but is about getting up again and making it work. Hope sustains passion by giving optimism that one day you can achieve your goals.

Mastery and Flow

Gritty people desire to excel beyond their already remarkable level of expertise. It’s about looking forward and not back. Practice is key to this, experts set stretch goals focusing on narrowing aspects of overall performance, striving to improve specific weaknesses. Many choose to do it in the dark, people are rewarded in the light for the hard work they put in in the dark. Deliberate practice is key.

What follows mastery after a stretch goal… another stretch goal! One by one, all the refinements add up to dazzling mastery.

Flow is a state of complete concentration that leads to a feeling of spontaneity, when performing at high levels and feels effortless.?

Deliberate practice doesn’t always feel as enjoyable as flow but is necessary to lead us to flow.

Flow is spontaneous versus practice, which is deliberate and requires careful planning to work in the challenge-skills spot (referred to in Book 1 (Art of Peak Performance). Flow is most common when challenge equals skill.

Deliberate practice is preparation and flow is performance. Years of challenge-exceeding-skills set, practices lead to challenge meeting skill flow making elite performance look effortless?

Get the most out of deliberate practice by:

• Clearly defined stretch goal
• Full concentration and effort
• Immediate and informative feedback
• Repetition with reflection and refinement

Make practice a habit, part of your daily rituals

Summary

Angela put together the Grit Scale as a way of measuring Grit in 2 ways (Passion and Perseverance).?

A Grit Scale Test can be found at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://mcnairscholars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/12-item-Grit-Scale-Angela-Duckworth.pdf

Grit scale prompts self-reflection – it’s what books like this are all about… clarify goals… align to single passion of importance. Note: that you can change some Grit score over time and you can grow grit.

Grit is a reliable predicter for who makes it and who doesn’t, whether completing an armed forces selection course, winning a competition or how long somebody stays in a job. As a head-hunter, I pay a lot of attention to the decisions people make, why and how they make them and the fortitude they evidence when achieving goals over a period of time to convert those decisions into performance and outcomes.

Be Gritty in everything you do, whether pursuing your deep-rooted purposes, life-long goals and ambitions or simply taking some planned downtime, spending time with the family, reading, cooking, walking the dog etc. Be Gritty will maximise your human potential and lead to greater life fulfilment.!

#talent?#people?#bookshelf?#selfimprovement?#bookrecommendation?#human?#alwaysbelearni #grit #passion #persaverance #reslience

Book No.3 this week shall be "Perform Under Pressure" by Dr Ceri Evans