The true essence of grit is difficult to grasp.
It is an intangible quality, but you recognize it when you see it in a person – Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Simone Biles immediately come to mind. Grit is a big part of mental toughness and according to American psychologist and researcher, Angela Duckworth, “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.”
Dr. Duckworth and her colleagues studied children and adults in all sorts of highly challenging situations. They studied cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point to predict which ones would stay in military training and which would drop out. They studied children preparing for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC to predict who would advance the farthest. They studied participants in Teach for America, a program that places rookie teachers in some of the toughest neighborhoods in America, to predict who would last until the end of the school year and of those, who had the most profoundly positive impacts on their students. In each of these scenarios and countless more, the characteristic that emerged as the most significant determinant of success was… you guessed it… grit.
Grit is the single most significant predictor of success.
Applied positive psychologists have found that grit is more important to peak performance than intelligence, natural talent and ability. According to Dr. Duckworth, “It is the single trait in our complex and wavering nature which accounts for success.” People with grit have a growth-oriented mindset. They approach obstacles and adversity with a positive “I can do anything I put my mind to” attitude.
Grit is the secret sauce that allows you to maximize your physical ability.
As Angela Duckworth notes in her book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is another.” In other words, without grit, your human potential will likely go untapped. If you’re interested in finding out just how gritty you are, Dr. Duckworth has made it easy. She and her colleagues developed a self-assessment tool called the Grit Scale.
The Grit Scale
The Grit Scale is a series of ten statements on which you rate yourself using a five-point scale. Click HERE to determine your grittiness. Take your time, reflect and above all else, be honest with yourself. When you click the GET MY SCORE button at the end, a pop-up window will appear, but don’t be alarmed if it turns out you’re not as gritty as you think you are. While there are lots of things out of your control, your grit factor is not one of them. Cultivating a positive or growth mindset leads to grit. Researchers have identified the five specific characteristics found in just about every gritty person you’ll meet and honing these traits is a great way to improve your grit factor.
- Perseverance is the cornerstone of grit. It is steady and persistent action toward a goal in the face of obstacles.
- Passion is the deep desire to achieve a very specific goal and is often rooted in personal values and core beliefs.
- Resilience supports grit, especially when you fail. It is the ability to recover quickly from adversity, to adjust when appropriate and to maintain a positive mindset. Without perseverance and resilience, you are much more likely to give up when confronted with obstacles or adversity.
- Courage is the quality of thought and spirit that allows you to face fear, whether that means trying something that ranges from simply being outside of your comfort zone to something that you find absolutely terrifying. Don’t confuse courage with fearlessness. Like I used to tell my kids when they were frightened, “It’s okay to be scared…you can’t be brave if you’re not scared.”
- Conscientiousness, as related to grit, is creating a plan of action and staying committed to executing it, day in and day out, in order to achieve long term goals.
To learn more about grit and what you can do to get it, click HERE.
Bio: Antoinette Datoc is a certified Mental Performance Coach who specializes in helping athletes cultivate positive mindsets, mental strength, and of course, grit. She is a competitive ballroom dancer and together with her partner (who happens also to be her husband) has accumulated more than a dozen national championship titles and represented Team USA in three world championship events.
