Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016) | Angela Duckworth

Grit. It's a fairly loose buzzword one usually hears in big business town-halls, or some kind of formal ceremonies. I chanced upon the book "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth, at a local National Bookstore in one quiet Manila afternoon. My impulse kicked-in. I know of it. I had it listed in my books-to-buy list. Perhaps, the marketing worked. I've been seeing the term "Grit" and Angela Duckworth's name pop up in the couple months leading up to it, in articles, in podcasts, in videos etc.

 So I bought it. 

There are a lot of noteworthy things in the book. One she stresses early on is often times we default to measures of IQ to bring pattern to different areas in life. We overvalue it for effort. We become distracted by talent.

Another she goes to say is “Effort counts twice”. Talent and Skill will not flourish without working at it. She argues talent with effort becomes skill. Skill with effort becomes achievement.

She explains Grit as having two components: Passion and Perseverance. Passion, used in this context is how steadily one holds to goals over time. "sustained enduring devotion". Perseverance on the other hand, is more akin to resilience, pushing through despite setbacks and challenges. 

Another is that Goals are not equal. We can view goals as being in a hierarchy, the Top Level Goals; the highest goal/s is/are your philosophies. The lower level goals are the little actions one take to serve a higher level goal.

How do you grow grit? Angela Duckworth states four psychological assets of Grit.

Interest, Practice, Purpose, and Hope.

Interest is basically finding that activity that you intrinsically enjoy doing. She gives a little nugget of advice, oftentimes we hear the “follow your passion” saying. Problem is we don't always figure that out early on. and then we lose hope. She states instead to "Foster passions". Try out stuff that you will be genuinely interested in. This part has some form of discovery in it.

Practice is a discipline to working towards to do better than yesterday. She goes on to say that it's not always about the quantity of time put into a task, it's more of the quality of the time put in. Deliberate practice. 

She also goes on to place side by side. The concept of flow against deliberate practice. Commonly, Flow is stated to be a state where time is irrelevant and you are one with the activity itself. Deliberate practice is not enjoyable if your pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. She settles that there is no contradiction; Deliberate Practice is a behavior. Flow is an experience. Deliberate Practice talks about what experts do, Flow talks about what experts feel. Deliberate Practice is preparation. Flow is for performance.

Purpose is that which gives meaning to our goals. Our motivations. It is about being able to do work that is bigger than ourselves. Goals that are a service to the well-being of others.

Hope is resilience. She quotes what is originally a Japanese saying, “nana korobi ya oki” :  "Fall Seven, Rise Eight" and how we should cultivate “Growth Mindset”, Be optimistic and take action. (Growth Mindset - Optimistic Self Talk - Perseverance over adversity.) Another saying is that "what doesnt kill makes you stronger". She states taking action is ultimately what makes you stronger.

How can you nurture Grit?

In terms of affecting the environment, she argues parenting styles, setting kids into environment where he/she gets mentored, and for organizations to create grit is to sift it into its culture.

She gives a figure representing parenting styles. One axis has Supportive and Unsupportive on the other end. Then, Demanding and Undemanding across.

Permissive parenting is when you are supportive but undemanding.
Neglectful parenting is when you are unsupportive and undemanding.
Authoritarian parenting is when you are unsupportive but demanding.
Then, being a wise parent is when you are supportive and demanding.

This could easily be leadership styles because in one way or another, leading is some form of parenting. To be wise leader, you only get to be demanding if you are supportive as well.

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