Review Of Grit: The Power Of Passion And Perseverance, Angela Duckworth'S Book Grit

The Book in Three Sentences

The secret khổng lồ outstanding achievement is not talent but grit: a special blend of passion và persistence. Grit is about having passion & perseverance for long-term goals.Gritty people are able lớn maintain their determination and motivation over long periods despite experiences with failure & adversity.

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The Five Big Ideas

Grit is about holding the same top-level goal for a very long time. (A top-level goal is your ultimate concern, a compass that gives direction và meaning to all the goals below it.)Paragons of grit have four psychological assets: (1) interest (2) practice (3) purpose (4) hope.Gritty people bởi vì more deliberate practice và experience more flow.For paragons of grit, the long days & evenings of toil, the setbacks và disappointments, & struggle, the sacrifice—all this is worth it because, ultimately, their efforts pay dividends to other people.Often, the critical gritty-or-not decisions we make are a matter of identity more than anything else.

Grit Summary

Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.

Compared with what we ought khổng lồ be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental và physical resources.

The “naturalness bias” is a hidden prejudice against those who’ve achieved what they have because they worked for it, và a hidden preference for those whom we think arrived at their place in life because they’re naturally talented.

In Duckworth’s view, the biggest reason a preoccupation with talent can be harmful is simple: By shining our spotlight on talent, we risk leaving everything else in the shadows. We inadvertently send the message that these other factors—including grit—don’t matter as much as they really do.

In a study of competitive swimmers titled, “The Mundanity of Excellence,” Dan Chambliss, writes, “The most dazzling human achievements are, in fact, the aggregate of countless individual elements, each of which is, in a sense, ordinary.”

Great things are accomplished by those “people whose thinking is active in one direction, who employ everything as material, who always zealously observe their own inner life & that of others, who perceive everywhere models and incentives, who never tire of combining together the means available to lớn them.”

Talent—how fast we improve in skill—absolutely matters. But effort factors into the calculations twice, not once. Effort builds skill. At the very same time, effort makes skill productive.

Consistency of effort over the long run is everything.

Many of us, it seems, quit what we start far too early và far too often. Even more than the effort a gritty person puts in on a single day, what matters is that they wake up the next day, and the next, ready khổng lồ get on that treadmill & keep going.

Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal lớn it. It’s not about falling in love; it’s about staying in love.

Grit has two components: passion and perseverance.

Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.

Duckworth on passion:

What I mean by passion is not just that you have something you care about. What I mean is that you care about that same ultimate goal in an abiding, loyal, steady way. You are not capricious. Each day, you wake up thinking of the questions you fell asleep thinking about. You are, in a sense, pointing in the same direction, ever eager lớn take even the smallest step forward than to lớn take a step lớn the side, toward some other destination. At the extreme, one might hotline your focus obsessive. Most of your actions derive their significance from their allegiance to lớn your ultimate concern, your life philosophy. You have your priorities in order.

Grit is about holding the same top-level goal for a very long time. Furthermore, this “life philosophy,” as Pete Carroll might put it, is so interesting & important that it organizes a great khuyễn mãi giảm giá of your waking activity. In very gritty people, most mid-level and low-level goals are, in some way or another, related to lớn that ultimate goal. In contrast, a lack of grit can come from having less coherent goal structures.

When prioritizing goals, ask yourself, “To what extent vày these goals serve a common purpose?”

The more they’re part of the same goal hierarchy—important because they then serve the same ultimate concern—the more focused your passion.

Don’t beat your head against the wall attempting to lớn follow through on something that is, merely, a means to a more important end.

Giving up on lower-level goals is not only forgivable, it’s sometimes absolutely necessary. You should give up when one lower-level goal can be swapped for another that is more feasible. (Note: to learn more about when lớn quit and when to lớn stick, read The Dip by Seth Godin.)

As a species, we’re getting better and better at abstract reasoning.

Grit grows as we figure out our life philosophy, learn to dust ourselves off after rejection & disappointment, and learn khổng lồ tell the difference between low-level goals that should be abandoned quickly & higher-level goals that demand more tenacity.

Duckworth on “The Maturity Principle”:

Over time, we learn life lessons we don’t forget, and we adapt in response to lớn the growing demands of our circumstances. Eventually, new ways of thinking & acting become habitual. There comes a day when we can hardly remember our immature former selves. We’ve adapted, those adaptations have become durable, and, finally, our identity—the sort of person we see ourselves to be—has evolved. We’ve matured.

Like every aspect of your psychological character, grit is more plastic than we might think.

If you’re not as gritty as you want lớn be, ask yourself why.

Any of the following four thoughts might go through your head right before you quit what you’re doing: “I’m bored.” “The effort isn’t worth it.” “This isn’t important khổng lồ me.” “I can’t vì this, so I might as well give up.”

Paragons of grit don’t swap compasses: when it comes khổng lồ the one, singularly important aim that guides almost everything else they do, the very gritty tend not to lớn utter the statements above.

Paragons of grit have four psychological assets:

Interest
Practice
Purpose
Hope

From the very beginning to lớn the very end, it is inestimably important to learn to keep going even when things are difficult, even when we have doubts.

Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, và then a lifetime of deepening.

Interests are not discovered through introspection. Instead, interests are triggered by interactions with the outside world.

What follows the initial discovery of an interest is a much lengthier & increasingly proactive period of interest development.

Longitudinal studies tracking learners confirm that overbearing parents và teachers erode intrinsic motivation. (Note: to lớn learn more about motivation, read Drive by Dan Pink.)

Kids whose parents let them make their own choices about what they lượt thích are more likely lớn develop interests later identified as a passion.

Duckworth on the motivational differences between expert và beginners:

At the start of an endeavor, we need encouragement và freedom to lớn figure out what we enjoy. We need small wins. We need applause. Yes, we can handle a tincture of criticism và corrective feedback. Yes, we need khổng lồ practice. But not too much và not too soon. Rush a beginner và you’ll bludgeon their budding interest. It’s very, very hard khổng lồ get that back once you do.

The grittier an individual is, the fewer career changes they’re likely lớn make.

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For the expert, novelty is nuance.

If you’d like to follow your passion but haven’t yet fostered one, you must begin at the beginning: discovery.

Ask yourself:

What vì I lượt thích to think about? Where does my mind wander? What vày I really care about? What matters most to lớn me? How bởi vì I enjoy spending my time? And, in contrast, what bởi vì I find absolutely unbearable?

To young graduates wringing their hands over what to do, Duckworth says, “Experiment! Try! You’ll certainly learn more than if you don’t!”

The directive to follow your passion is not bad advice. But what may be even more useful is khổng lồ understand how passions are fostered in the first place.

Kaizen is Japanese for resisting the plateau of arrested development. (Note: to lớn learn more about kaizen, read One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer)

A crucial insight of Anders Ericsson’s research on excellence is not that experts log more hours of practice. Rather, it’s that experts practice differently. Unlike most of us, experts are logging thousands upon thousands of hours of what Ericsson calls deliberate practice.

Duckworth on how experts practice:

First, they mix a stretch goal, zeroing in on just one narrow aspect of their overall performance. Rather than focus on what they already vì chưng well, experts strive khổng lồ improve specific weaknesses. They intentionally seek out challenges they can’t yet meet. Then, with undivided attention và great effort, experts strive lớn reach their stretch goal. Interestingly, many choose to vày so while nobody’s watching. As soon as possible, experts hungrily seek feedback on how they did. Necessarily, much of that feedback is negative. This means that experts are more interested in what they did wrong—so they can fix it—than what they did right. The active processing of this feedback is as essential as its immediacy. & after feedback, then what? Then experts vày it all over again, & again, & again. Until they have finally mastered what they set out to lớn do. Until what was a struggle before is now fluent and flawless. Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence. Finally, experts start all over again with a new stretch goal. One by one, these subtle refinements địa chỉ cửa hàng up to lớn dazzling mastery.

Gritty people do more deliberate practice and experience more flow. There’s no contradiction here, for two reasons:

First, deliberate practice is a behavior, và flow is an experience. Anders Ericsson is talking about what experts do; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is talking about how experts feel. Second, you don’t have to lớn be doing deliberate practice and experiencing flow at the same time (Duckworth argues for most experts, they rarely go together.)

Deliberate practice is for preparation. Flow is for performance.

Nobody wants khổng lồ show you the hours & hours of becoming. They’d rather show the highlight of what they’ve become.

Duckworth has three suggestions for getting the most out of deliberate practice:

Know the science
Make it a habit
Change the way you experience it.

Each of the basic requirements of deliberate practice is unremarkable:

A clearly defined stretch goal Full concentration và effort Immediate and informative feedback Repetition with reflection & refinement

For paragons of frit, the long days và evenings of toil, the setbacks and disappointments và struggle, the sacrifice—all this is worth it because, ultimately, their efforts pay dividends to other people.

In Duckworth’s “grit lexicon,” purpose means “the intention to lớn contribute to the well-being of others.”

Most gritty people see their ultimate aims as deeply connected to the world beyond themselves.

Three bricklayers are asked: “What are you doing?” The first says, “I am laying bricks.” The second says, “I am building a church.” & the third says, “I am building the house of God.” The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a calling. Many of us would like to be lượt thích the third bricklayer, but instead identify with the first or second.

Yale management professor Amy Wrzesniewski has found that people have no trouble at all telling her which of the three bricklayers they identify with.

Not surprisingly, Wrzesniewski’s conclusion is that it’s not that some kinds of occupations are necessarily jobs and others are careers and still others are callings. Instead, what matters is whether the person doing the work believes that laying down the next brick is just something that has khổng lồ be done, or instead something that will lead to lớn further personal success, or, finally, work that connects the individual to lớn something far greater than the self.

Adam’s research demonstrates that leaders and employees who keep both personal và prosocial interests in mind vị better in the long run than those who are 100 percent selfishly motivated.

In order lớn develop a sense of purpose, David Yeager recommends reflecting on how the work you’re already doing can make a positive contribution lớn society.

Amy Wrzesniewski recommends thinking about how, in small but meaningful ways, you can change your current work lớn enhance its connection lớn your chip core values.

Bill Damon recommends finding inspiration in a purposeful role model.

The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck và everything to bởi vì with getting up again.

Optimists habitually tìm kiếm for temporary & specific causes of their suffering, whereas pessimists assume permanent and pervasive causes are lớn blame. (Note: khổng lồ learn more about learned optimism, read The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.)

When you keep searching for ways lớn change your situation for the better, you stand a chance of finding them. When you stop searching, assuming they can’t be found, you guarantee they won’t.

Duckworth has measured growth mindset và grit in both younger children & older adults, & in every sample, she’s found that growth mindset và grit go together. (Note: to learn more about growth mindset, read Mindset by Carol Dweck.)

Growth Mindset > Optimistic Self-Talk > Perseverance Over Adversity

Duckworth’s recommendation for teaching yourself hope is to take each step in the sequence above and ask, “What can I vày to boost this one?”

Duckworth’s three suggestion in that regard is to:

Update your beliefs about intelligence and talent
Practice optimistic self-talk
Ask for a helping hand

If you want lớn bring forth grit in your child, first ask how much passion và perseverance you have for your own life goals. Then ask yourself how likely it is that your approach to parenting encourages your child lớn emulate you. If the answer khổng lồ the first question is “a great deal,” & your answer lớn the second is “very likely,” you’re already parenting for grit.

As soon as your child is old enough, find something they might enjoy doing outside of class & sign them up & require that they stick with at least one activity for more than a year.

Kids who spend more than a year in extracurriculars are significantly more likely lớn graduate from college and, as young adults, lớn volunteer in their communities.

If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture và join it. If you’re a leader, & you want the people in your organization to be grittier, create a gritty culture.

Over time và under the right circumstances, the norms và values of the group to which we belong become our own. We internalize them. We carry them with us. The way we vày things around here & why eventually becomes The way I bởi things and why.

Often, the critical gritty-or-not decisions we make are a matter of identity more than anything else. Often, our passion and perseverance do not spring from a cold, calculating analysis of the costs and benefits of alternatives. Rather, the source of our strength is the person we know ourselves to be. (Note: This echoes James Clear’s idea of Identity-Based Habits.)

In this instant thủ đô new york Times bestseller, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving khổng lồ succeed—be it parents, students, educators, athletes, or business people—that the secret khổng lồ outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion & persistence she calls “grit.”Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, & neuroscience, which led khổng lồ the hypothesis that what really drives success is not “genius” but a quality combination of passion và long-term perseverance. In Grit, she takes readers into the field khổng lồ visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, và young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. Among Grit’s most valuable insights: *Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal *How grit can be learned, regardless of I.Q. Or circumstances *How lifelong interest is triggered *How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy *Which is better for your child—a warm embrace or high standards *The magic of the Hard Thing Rule Winningly personal, insightful, & even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference.

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This reading group guide for Grit
includes an introduction, discussion questions, và ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended khổng lồ help your reading group find new and interesting angles & topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation & increase your enjoyment of the book. Introduction Angela Duckworth’s Grit, a longtime thành phố new york Times bestseller, is a master class in the components of grit: the combination of passion và perseverance that can take a life from good to great lớn exceptional. From studies of spelling bee champions to Olympic athletes to lớn her own life as a researcher & mother, Duckworth takes the reader through a fascinating landscape of experiments & experiences, unlocking the psychological secrets of success. At once a primer in what makes a person gritty và a toolkit for cultivating that complex of skills, Grit is essential reading for any student, professional, or parent—or anyone who strives for a more demanding, fulfilling, & rewarding life.Topics and Questions for Discussion 1. In the preface to Grit, Duckworth describes her father repeatedly calling her “no genius” as a child—ironic because she was awarded a Mac
Arthur “Genius” Grant in mid-career. How were your intellectual merits evaluated when you were a child? What impact vày you think that had on you? 2. Duckworth’s formula for achievement is that talent combined with effort equals skill and skill combined with effort equals achievement, meaning that effort counts twice (page 42). Does this resonate with you? Can you think of any examples of this formula in your own life? 3. Describe the difference between passion và perseverance. 4. The variance of the Grit Scale scores by age can be explained either by cultural changes or the “maturity principle”—so, either older adults are grittier because they were raised in a different, more grit-focused culture, or people become grittier as they age (page 85). How does the research support each of these theories? How does your own experience tư vấn them? 5. Duckworth identifies four characteristics that particularly gritty people tend khổng lồ have: interest in what they do, the capacity to lớn practice, a sense of purpose in their work, and hope for the future (page 91). Can you think of any examples in this book, from Olympic athletes to lớn schoolchildren, who exhibit or don’t exhibit these qualities? From your own life? 6. Vì you think passion is necessary lớn have a happy or successful career? What vì you make of the formula that passion is built through discovery, development, và then deepening? 7. What distinguishes deliberate practice from other kinds of practice? do you believe deliberate practice and flow are incompatible? 8. Consider the parable of the bricklayers (page 149). Is it possible for everyone to treat their job like a “calling”? What social forces prevent or encourage that possibility? 9. What distinguishes a growth from a fixed mindset? vì you believe intelligence is something that can change over a lifetime? 10. Are you a psychologically wise parent? Were you parented in a psychologically wise way? Take the quiz (page 214) and discuss. 11. There’s a positive correlation between Grit Grid scores and family income. Why bởi vì you think this is? 12. How might you apply the Hard Thing Rule in your life? If you have children, how does it compare with your parenting style?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. Measure your own grit by taking the Grit Scale quiz (55). Discuss whether your score matched or failed to lớn match your expectations. 2. Watch Angela Duckworth’s TED talk at www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverence. 3. Invite a particularly gritty friend lớn come speak at your book club and discuss what you can learn from their experiences.

About The Author


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Photograph by Zach Teris
Angela Duckworth

Angela Duckworth, Ph
D, is a 2013 Mac
Arthur Fellow & professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. She is also the founder và CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is lớn advance scientific insights that help kids thrive. She completed her bố in neurobiology at Harvard, her MSc in neuroscience at Oxford, and her Ph
D in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.Grit: The nguồn of Passion và Perseveranceis her first book and an instant
New York Timesbestseller.

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