Last week, I introduced you to Angela Duckworth, a leading researcher on grit who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book Grit. The Power of Passion and Perseverance, her personal website, and the website of Character Lab, the nonprofit organization she founded, are treasure troves in terms of grit. So, I dug into them and other sources and identified information that I hope you will find helpful.
Defining grit
Let’s start with some clarifications about terms. What exactly is the difference between grit, resilience, and persistence? Here are some definitions from the psychology dictionary of APA (American Psychological Association).
Grit: “a personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals; grit entails working strenuously to overcome challenges and maintaining effort and interest over time despite failures, adversities, and plateaus in progress”
Resilience: “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demand”
Persistence: “the quality or state of maintaining a course of action or keeping at a task and finishing it despite the obstacles (such as opposition or discouragement) or the effort involved; also called perseverance”
Bottom line:
Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals; resilience is about bouncing back from challenges and difficulties (quickly); persistence/ perseverance is keeping at something even if it is difficult. You can think of grit as the broader concept encompassing the other two.
Measuring grit
Are you a gritty person? Can you measure grit? And if yes, how?
Angela Duckworth created a so-called Grit Scale so that she could study grit as a scientist “because you cannot study what you cannot measure.”
This scale is also useful as a prompt for self-reflection, Duckworth writes. So she makes it available to everyone on her website. However, she points out that the Grit Scale, like all psychological measures, has limitations. One relates to the honesty - or dishonesty - of the person who answers the questions. “You can fake a higher grit score without much effort.” Of course, if you are not honest with yourself, the test result has no meaning.
There are two versions of the scale, a longer and a shorter one. I provide links to both of them below.
Developing grit
Through her studies and interviews with exceptional personalities, Angela Duckworth has identified four key qualities that characterize gritty people: a high level of interest in a specific topic or activity, a particular way to practice, a sense of purpose, and hope & optimism. These qualities are not fixed, the psychologist underlines, but can be fostered and developed. How? Here are some suggestions from her book Grit. The Power of Passion and Perseverance:
#1 Cultivating interests:
Passion for an activity or topic is essential for persistent pursuit. But don't expect to know what you love right off the bat. Interests must be nurtured.
The first step: Allow yourself enough time to find out what appeals to you and inspires you. Also, discovering a passion can’t be achieved through introspection. Instead, you must experiment and interact with the world.
It's also better not to be too serious at first. "Before hard work, there comes play," Duckworth writes. “Even the most accomplished of experts start out as unserious beginners.” As a novice, you don’t have to be obsessed with getting better. So goof around, and have fun! This will trigger your interest and allow you to take it more seriously later.
Also important: Find like-minded people who encourage you. “Interests thrive when there is a crew of encouraging supporters,” Duckworth writes. These can be mentors, teachers, coaches, peers, friends, and family.
Once you've found something that fascinates you, it's important to keep the interest burning and rekindle it when it cools down. So don't stop asking questions; make answers the starting point for new questions; go deeper and discover nuances in the familiar.
#2 Improving practice
Gritty people not only practice a lot but also in a certain way. Duckworth recommends a technique that the Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson calls "deliberate practice" and has observed in Olympic champions, chess grandmasters, and prima ballerinas.
These world-class people define a clear, relatively narrow goal and set it so high that, at first, they cannot achieve it.
Then, with undivided attention and all their strength, they set about getting closer to the target. In doing so, they not only rely on their own perception but also ask others: What am I doing wrong?
And after that, Duckworth points out, these experts start all over again, repeating and refining until they reach their goal—and even find it easy.
#3 Finding purpose:
Most people cannot sustain a demanding activity for a long time unless they see purpose in what they do, Duckworth points out. It is therefore necessary that, in addition to personal interest, you have a sense of doing something important, like improving the well-being of others. This sense of purpose might not be there right away, Duckworth writes. Many people pursue an interest for quite some time before seeing a deeper meaning in it.
How do you find a deeper meaning? It is often a question of perspective. Even a mundane activity can be meaningful if defined appropriately. Duckworth relates the parable of the three bricklayers who are asked what they are doing.
The first says, "I am laying bricks."
The second replies, "I am building a church."
The third answers, “I am building God's house.”
In other words: The first has a job, the second has a career, and the third has a calling.
This is true for most occupations, Duckworth says: You can see the same activity as a mere job that earns you a living. You can see it as a career that advances you personally. Or you can see it as a calling that helps others and gives meaning to your life.
#4 Nurturing hope:
Being gritty involves not giving up, even when the going gets tough. This is easier when you have what researcher Carol Dweck (Stanford University) calls a "growth mindset."
People with a growth mindset believe that it is possible for them to change and develop. They assume that if you have the right opportunities and support, try hard enough, and believe in yourself, you have the capacity to learn new skills and grow. On the other hand, people with a fixed mindset regard talent and intelligence as static, as something that cannot be changed.
Having a growth mindset means being optimistic about your potential to develop. So how can you boost this optimism? Duckworth offers three pieces of advice:
1. First, update your beliefs about intelligence and talent and learn what researchers know today about the brain’s plasticity and adaptability.
2. Second, practice optimistic self-talk so your inner voice doesn't constantly hold you back, block you, and put you down.
3. And finally, ask for a helping hand. Being gritty means getting up on your feet after a fall, but it is often impossible to get up on your own. So, seek out people who cheer you on, support you, and offer advice.
So much for now about Duckworth’s advice. I am sure not everything will click with everybody. But I hope you find something that is helpful to you.
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