By Jeremy Bekker
Grit is a psychological construct defined as the combination of passion and perseverance for the pursuit of a long term goal. Grit was originally defined and studied by Dr. Angela Duckworth and has been shown to be a predictor of success across a wide array of disciplines, including rank in the national spelling bee, college success in Ivy League schools, and continued enrollment at military academies.
The main finding of Dr. Duckworth’s research is that, along with innate intelligence, resources, and economic status, grit is the one of the greatest predictors of personal success (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Innate intelligence and talent can’t be sole predictors of success because skill-building effort is required—which is great news! You can’t change your genetics, but you do have power over the effort you put into learning and accomplishing. Being successful and achieving your potential in life requires the exertion of your own will and energy. In fact, Duckworth (2016) states that talent is not the same thing as achievement, and, without effort, talent is just unmet potential. Individuals with grit wake up every day with a clear idea of what they want (passion) and they understand the action they will need to take to get there (perseverance).
““The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum.”
-William James”
Improving Passion
The first part of grit is passion. Duckworth (2016) talks about the passion aspect of grit like a compass—while you may take daily actions that change regularly, your passion is the thing that ultimately guides your behavior in the long-term. The best way to determine what you’re passionate about is to figure out what brings you the most meaning. Some may say that “work is work”; it doesn’t matter if you like it or not. However, Duckworth found that individuals who have careers they enjoy are more satisfied with their lives and perform better at their jobs. So, having passion allows you to enjoy your career and be more successful. If you are stuck in a job that isn’t your passion, you can still find other ways to bring meaning to your life, such as through volunteer work and interpersonal relationships. This search for your compass should not be a short process. Spend a considerable amount of time thinking about what you want your life to be about; whatever answer you find can give you direction to get to the places you want to go.
The main aspect of improving passion is having a singular unified vision. One way to figure out your passion and create a plan to follow it is to make a goal tree. A goal tree consists of several hierarchical levels ranging from your most overarching life plan down to the daily habits that will make that plan become reality. Lower-level goals should always serve the purpose of higher-level goals. For example, your overarching goal may be to live an environmentally sustainable life. Goals below that may be to limit your personal carbon footprint or increase awareness at your workplace. Beneath that may be more day-to-day goals such as avoiding single-use plastics or writing an article about sustainable alternative energy sources. An important aspect of goal trees is that lower level goals can be changed or removed, while higher level goals should stay the same over many years and even across an entire lifetime. That being said, you may continue to assess and modify your higher goals to better suit your personal meaning, especially at the beginning of the process. Do not continue towards goals that don’t bring your life more meaning.
Improving Perseverance
The second aspect of grit is perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to stick with and pursue a goal over a long period of time. Although passion is key to a successful and meaningful life, if you can’t stick to a goal long term, then the strength of your passion doesn’t matter. Real change takes a long time. Whether you're trying to write a book, gunning for a promotion, or figuring out how to be a parent, expect that change will come slowly. In order to increase perseverance, define a clear path to success that includes plenty of structure and uninterrupted work time. Essentially, your goals for daily actions need to become habits. Big projects get completed through a million small steps. The best way you can create sustained effort towards a purposeful life is by making the structure of your days as routine as possible.
““There is no more miserable human being than the one for whom the beginning of every bit of work must be decided anew each day.”
-William James”
Perseverance can be achieved through deliberate practice, a psychological concept created by Anders Ericsson. Ericsson’s (1998) research found that individuals who became leaders in their fields engage in a specific type of a practice that includes targeting weak areas and receiving immediate feedback. To integrate deliberate practice into your life, you should supplement your work days with several hour-long segments where you will put away distractions and focus exclusively on your work. Those hours should be spent focusing on problem areas and then checking the quality of your work. By incorporating deliberate practice into your daily routine, you can greatly increase performance and ability in the long run.
Grit is a learnable character trait. By using the principles above, you can make your life more meaningful and productive. With increased passion and perseverance, you’ll be able to find the motivation to keep going and the structure to succeed.
Angela Duckworth has created a grit scale that is available at her website. There, you can take the grit questionnaire and find your overall grit score as well as see your score for the two subcategories of passion and perseverance. Once you have figured out what your score is, you can choose which of the two areas you want to focus on improving. The website also allows you to see how your level of grit compares to the rest of the population.
References
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York, NY: Scribner/Simon & Schuster.
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Ericsson, K. A. (1998). The scientific study of expert levels of performance: General implications for optimal learning and creativity. High Ability Studies, 9(1), 75-100, doi:10.1080/1359813980090106
James, W. (1907). The Energies of Men. The Philosophical Review, 16(1), 1-20. doi:10.2307/2177575
James, W. (2008). Habit. Savannah, GA: Frederic Beil.