How Gritty Are You?

I've always been stubborn even when it didn't serve me. I remember one winter as a kid refusing to drink some disgusting liquid medicine, always the worst flavors, and sitting outside in the cold pouting. Eventually the frigid air wore me down. I gulp it down and rushed back inside defeated. I could tell many variations of this story for days.

Grit. Gumption. Whatever you call it means not giving up easily and can slide into being stubborn without too much effort. In her new book, Grit: the power of passion and perseverance, Angela Duckworth puts my worries aside that achievement and success only come from those with elusive qualities or backgrounds. Those can help but what matters more is grit.

Grit has been omnipresent in my life even when I didn’t know how to articulate it. It helped me out in college since I thought psychology would be my calling in life. I would grind away at projects I hardly remember. I rediscovered some old academic notebooks and binders hiding in my closet and I couldn't remember much from the multicolored highlighted pages.

She determined against all other factors grit repeatedly pointed out who was more likely to persevere or fail. It worked for West Point cadets going through Beast Barracks and entrepreneurs. Effort is more important than talent or stated another way only expands your skills thus making you look talented. Talent is great but effort supplied by grit is better.

I already knew before cracking open this book that intrinsic motivation is usually more palpable compared with extrinsic motivation. When people stop cheering for you to be the best or succeed will you keep going? That is the grit factor.

Books like this make fall back in love with psychology and yearn for the days when I was learning all I could on the subject. I don't regret my choices but sometimes I wonder if I would have enjoyed research as much as I thought I would after graduation.

Can you teach grit? Or is it innate? The answer like most things is both. Having parents with grit makes it more likely you will be gritty. Also having an encouraging environment at school or with different teachers or coaches can encourage grit. The opposite is also true.

Grit levels fluctuate which is a good thing. I don't think anyone with the flu is as gritty as they usually are. I found this book very readable which is sometimes a crapshoot with nonfiction. The author's writing style and chopping up data with stories kept me interested and reading past my bedtime. I've become gritty-er about pursuing my passions because they give me more creative and constructive satisfaction that my day job can't. Which falls in line with the trend for people to have higher levels of grit as they age.

I used to get hung up on my changing timelines and passions but now I realize I've been following my passions and grit. Currently my grit score is 4.1 on a scale from 1 (not gritty) to 5 (very gritty) which means from the sample group I'm grittier than about 70% of participants. This doesn't surprise me since I feel grittier than most but not the grittiest ever.