Grit is what separates those who succeed from others who do not.
The psychologist Angela Duckworth has devoted many years to studying grit. She offers us a clear definition of the term.
Grit is sticking with your future day in and day out.
Whatever goal you’ve set for yourself or wherever you’ve seen yourself in the future, stick with it for the number of days in a year, the following year, and the year after that.
It is a powerful mindset, but…
Why is Grit So Important?
So, one day, this kid asks their teacher drily how to become a millionaire. I can bet you that kid wanted their teacher to rattle off a few steps to the kid, and boom! Millions.
Nope. Not going to happen.
Success, any kind of success at all, in this kid’s case he was referring to financial success, is never a coincidence.
That’s why grit is so important. It is the one behavior, skill, superpower that you need to learn if you want to succeed at something.
What is it that you want to succeed in? Creative arts, science, technology, software programming, theatre, tourism, law, environmental activism?
Really, what is it? Whatever it is, your passion is valid, and you have to do what it takes to succeed at it.
That’s what grit is all about. It takes you from the first day of your goal to your finish line.
Talent Has Got Nothing on Grit
For real. Before Angela Duckworth became a psychology professor, she taught middle-schoolers and high school students. As a teacher, she found an exciting detail among her students,
The most talented students weren’t always the best in their academics. IQ does not necessarily determine how successful you will be as an adult.
Grit determines more success stories than anything else, and it is not a far-fetched idea how this makes sense. This next section tells you three ways having a grit mindset helps you succeed.
3 Ways a Grit Mindset Can Help you Succeed
To succeed at anything, you’ll often have to fail a couple of times, learn from those failures and do better the next time around.
Your path to success is unique, and it means your success will not also be linear (like from point A to Point B). That is where a grit mindset steps in to help you succeed.
- Grit helps you persevere:
You will not succeed if you don’t bounce back from your setbacks or stick through those rough patches. That courage to stick with your goal means that you get to bounce back even when you experience the worst setbacks.
The more times you can bounce back, the more likely you will succeed. Elon Musk’s SpaceX program that tried to create reusable rockets didn’t work the first time, but it did the fifth time. We’d never heard about reusable rockets until they thought about it. They didn’t stop until they showed us it was possible.
Grit helps you make the impossible happen because it helps you persevere and bounce back after setbacks.
- Grit helps you find positive meaning in everything:
When you can bounce back from rough situations, another thing you’ll get good at is creating positivity.
Imagine that you cannot achieve something the first time or fail at that new skill you’re learning. A grit mindset tells you, Hey, you’re new to this, and sure you’re failing, but you’re also learning and failing.
You’ll learn and succeed because of those same failures you experienced at some point in your journey.
Grit helps you become a glass-half-full kind of person, always seeing the positive meaning in everything.
- Grit helps you build discipline:
With a grit mindset, you get up and show up every day. Remember the definition of grit at the beginning of this article. Sticking with your plans and daily goals helps you build discipline around specific activities.
So, you want to enroll in the next musical auditions at school, and you hope to score the lead role. You show up every day and put in some practice- practice a line or more in front of the mirror or with your friends. Something begins to happen when you do this; you become disciplined around practicing your lines.
Even better, when you score the lead role, which you will, you won’t have a hard time practicing for the main event. You’ve been practicing the whole time.
You need the discipline to succeed, and a grit mindset helps you develop discipline in small, everyday steps.
Tips to Build a Grit Mindset
Before you go, you can start using these tips to build a grit mindset today.
- Practice, Practice, Practice
- Connect to a deeper purpose in your goals
- Do not give up when you fail at first
- Give yourself time (to practice and master the skills that will take you to your goals)
I hope this helps!