In her bestseller, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016), Angela Duckworth shares results of her research that suggests that with all due respect to talent, grit is a better predictor of success. She studied West Point cadets, National Spelling Bee contestants, rookie teachers in low-income school districts, and corporate sales people. She developed a Grit Scale(angeladuckworth.com/ghrit-scale) and later presented a TED Talk that has since been watched by more than 14,000.000 people.
Here are a few of her key points:
o “I define grit as a combination of both perseverance and passion for long-term goals. No just working hard, but also loving what you do. Working hard on something you love. I study it because it’s not the same thing as talent, which also helps you achieve great things in life but has hogged a disproportionate share of the spotlight in American culture.”
o “Self-control is that internal conflict between what you want to get done — a goal — and anything more fun or pleasing in the moment, like Snapchat, binge-watching “Downton Abbey or a doughnut. I’m sure we all know people who are gritty and self-controlled but there are [also] people [who are] one but not the other.
o “I can’t even remember a time in my life when I didn’t work hard, but I didn’t have a focused passion like I do now. I struggled to find that North Star that would keep me in the same direction. Now I do have that.”
o “A lot of us have the insights. We’ve heard things that we’ve forgotten. We’re focusing on what we can’t do. When we are given the prompt of advising and encouraging someone else, we draw our attention to what we can do.”
o “The first and most important thing any teacher can do is to be an example of the kind of character strength, grit and many other things we want in our kids. If you are a hypocrite — you tell kids to work hard, but you don’t get the exam papers back when you promise or don’t bother to write comments on the kids’ essays — then everything you lecture kids about will go in one ear and out the other.”
To learn more about Angela and her important work, please click here.