You Need To Read 'Grit'

QUOTE OF THE DAY

IS SUCCESS EFFORT OR TALENT?

533 Words | 1 Min 56 Sec Read

Angela Duckworth is a psychologist from the University of Pensilvenia, and she is obsessed with finding out who is successful and why.

She has conducted countless studies of those achieve success, from spelling bees to elite military graduates to corporate salesmen at the very top of their game, just to answer the question, ‘What is the biggest dictator of success?’

Is it luck or is it effort?

Society has made us believe that everything comes from raw talent; surveys show that we would often discount our own abilities if we were told that we were against naturally talented people.

For example, if you went into an IQ test and were told the other person had a higher IQ than you, you would naturally underperform due to a lack of belief that you would win.

Angela found, however, that where talent is important in success, effort is twice as important, and she simplified it into this formula:

Talent x effort = skill

Skill x effort = achievement

This basically means that when you apply effort to baseline talent, you get skill, and when you apply effort to your skill, you get achievement.

This fundamentally means that grit is the biggest determiner of success over a long enough period of time.

A lot of people would read that and be frustrated, as the thing they love to tell themselves is “They are just too talented; I could never do that”. But when you realise it all comes down to grit, those excuses get thrown out the window.

So if it all comes down to grit, the question becomes, How the hell do you increase your grit?

Well, Angela breaks it down into 4 steps you can take:

1. Develop a fascination.

2. Strive to improve each day.

3. Remind yourself of the greater purpose.

4. Develop a growth mindset

But how do those steps actually look?

1. Develop a fascination.

For clarity on step 1, you can look at people like Charles Darwin. He didn’t discover the theory of evolution because he was told he had to, but because of how interested he was in how we got to where we are today, and it was his fascination that drove him to keep asking questions and ultimately come up with the answers.

2. Strive to improve each day.

You need to continuously try to beat yourself and become better today than you were yesterday, every single day, because the refrain of all paragons of grit is:

“Whatever it takes, I want to improve.”

It doesn’t matter how excellent you already are.

3. Remind yourself of the greater purpose.

Angela conducted a study of 16,000 Americans to uncover what was the greater motivator of grit, pleasure, or purpose.

She found that higher levels of purpose directly correlated to higher levels of grit; it's up to you to decide what greater purpose it is that you’re serving.

4. Develop a growth mindset

Your ability to continue to improve and succeed all comes from your core beliefs. Perspectives like:

‘I can’t learn anymore’, ‘I am what I am’, ‘This is how I do things’ It will limit any potential you have; you need to scrap the theory that your abilities are fixed; it's simply not true.

TAKEAWAYS:

Grit is proven to be the standalone factor that dictates someones success and if you want to increase your grit here are 4 things you can work on:

1. Develop a fascination.

2. Strive to improve each day.

3. Remind yourself of the greater purpose.

4. Develop a growth mindset 

And remember that:

Talent x effort = skill

Skill x effort = achievement

BOOK OF THE WEEK ⤵️

The book of the week is Grit by Angela Duckworth, a book that uncovers the truth of effort vs talent and teaches you how to use grit to help you achieve greatness. Read it HERE

CREATOR OF THE WEEK ⤵️

TWEET OF THE DAY ⤵️

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