This week’s book review was a joy…since hearing about the release of GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth, I was looking forward to working my way through this book.
Angela Duckworth, a native of Pittsburgh PA has spent the majority of her life as a psychologist researching human behavior especially around achievement labeling her work over the last few years as “Grit”
After a successful TED Talks episode, and most recent book, her name has become synonymous with GRIT – something we can all relate to in terms of overcoming procrastination and persisting to achieve our deepest desires goals in life.
GRIT: The Power Of Passion and Perseverance is one of my top read’s of the year, I know it will soon become one of yours too.
One of the early points in the book has Duckworth highlighting how setbacks and being put down by others (in this case her father who told her “you know you aren’t a genius”) can spur that inner spirit leading to great things in life. At that point in her life she decided “I won’t just have a job, I’ll have a calling”
The first chapter provides some examples of how top achievers were often NOT chosen because of intellectual or skill but ended up to be those that could handle the challenges and persevere – GRIT
Chapter 2 is where the fun begins as we learn about why talent and aptitude never rule the day, but rather persistence and continuing to struggle end up leading you further in the end. Early on in the book she decides to address this age-old question of “skill versus effort” coming down squarely for a greater influence from effort than skill.
Page 24 goes into the “naturalness bias” which simply means we have a bias toward someone being “naturally” fit for a given achievement even when we SAY hard work and grit is more important.
This is important because if we truly believe being naturally gifted is the only way to succeed then we have an excuse to give up – on the other hand if it turns out effort and perseverance are the keys then we have just given up any true chance to excel
Another great point in this Chapter has to do with the dangers of relying on any one measure of talent – often these tests or measurement systems themselves are flawed
Chapter 3 reinforces the dual role of effort in accomplishment. Effort is required to form talent and skill and is then a major factor in turning skill into achievement.
80% or more of success is showing up (the consistent effort most people are willing to explain away and not practice) Duckworth points out.
The powerful point here is that we put too much focus on one-time effort and little focus on long-term consistency of effort. You can put 40-minutes into running one day but if you skip the next day your effort goes to zero and so does your improvement in skill and achievement – and zero is BAD
Chapter 4 includes a self-test to measure your own Grit level on the author’s Grit scale. This tool is useful, but the entire Chapter is even more useful in helping us understand passion, perseverance, talent and skill. I found this Chapter one of the most useful in the book
Grit is more about Stamina than Intensity – many of us favour intensity over stamina
Passion (from which comes the ability to stick with something long-term even when short-term results are not clear) drives goals which can be changed on the way to realizing your passion (Big Goal)
Part II of the book gets into how we find and grow passion from the inside assuming (correctly given this is the crux of why someone would buy the book) the reader wants to improve their grit
Her key components to passion are
- Interest – enjoy some aspect of what you focus on
- Practice – ability to stick with obsessive levels of practice to improve
- Purpose – contribution and bigger cause helps reinforce and extend the longevity and level of interest
- Hope – never give up, belief that we always have a chance
With respect to interest, 2 points:
- interests in what and how you want to work as well as field (ex do you like to work alone or in teams? Do you enjoy problem solving or selling?)
- Vast majority of successful people took a while to find interests – by trying many things until they knew
Identifying potential interests takes self awareness and some action (trial). Then for an interest to take hold it requires development, reinforcement and practice are required to get good which provides further positive reinforcement
I was happy to see the concept of practice reinforced in the book. Interest alone is not enough to fuel a passion, one has to be willing to practice relentlessly (far more likely if you start with an interest, but not a given by any stretch).
The world is filled with people who have intense interest but that do not commit to practice so their interest never turns into passion or purpose
Very interesting observation about practice – first, it takes a LOT to become great and second, it takes practice with purpose (rather than doing the same thing over and over or blindly practicing without a structure, plan or coaching)
Main point is that practice is much more effective (less of it required) when done according to highly efficient plan
Another great point is whether exceptional people enjoy the hours and hours of practice – mostly no, but they are so passionate about the result that it makes the pain of practice worthwhile
Then well into Chapter 7, Angela provides 3 tips for making “deliberate” practice more bearable and even fun. I won’t give these away here, but if you struggle to overcome procrastination and focus on practice then the price of the book will seem like a tiny price versus the value you get here
Chapter 8 is no less brilliant covering the widely misunderstood and often used term “Purpose”
Angela’s definition is simply tying a thought, goal or activity to helping other people. She rightly states that sometimes a purpose comes first and becomes a passion, other times interests are extended to a larger purpose.
Purpose is good because it gives us a sense of wider meaning in society – that we matter to other people
Purpose is both altruistic and selfish as helping others and having a greater cause makes us feel pleasure as well as serves a wider social cause
Yet another powerful point is that purpose (or a sense of calling) is highly subjective – many people doing the same job, activity or goal may see it completely differently, some as a task or job, others as a mission or purpose. You develop your own sense of purpose.
Another key concept involved in Grit is hope, but Duckworth is clear that there is a big difference between blind hope (wishing) and hope backed by resolve – something I term “certainty” in that the hope is anchored in a high degree of belief supported by resolve that you WILL make it happen
Suffering only leads to hopelessness if you give up control – retake control in your mind and rise up
One way to be more optimistic, more hopeful and more positive is to see obstacles as temporary instead of permanent
Duckworth finishes the book by dealing with a couple of major areas we can influence grit in others around us – such as our kids through parenting or others through teaching or influence.
Though this is one of the weakest areas of the book in my opinion, there are some good tips you can use in your parenting to improve the grit level of your kids. HINT (think role model and encourage your kids)
One of the latter points in the book points out that controlling who you are around and the “team” you decide to join and conform to can make A huge difference in your attitude, level of commit and level of grit. Amen – this, in fact, makes a huge difference explaining kids in the poorest of neighbourhoods making it out because they joined a sport team, a choir, an art group or other gritty “team”
To succeed you need to be interested then motivated, you then must know what to do and how to do it (a plan and coaching)and then you need to learn perseverance followed by finishing.
GRIT: The Power Of Passion and Perseverance is well worth the few hours it took me to pour through – I would highly recommend this book as a gift for your kids, those in your family who are struggling, a friend or co-worker – it’s one of those books that everyone should read and apply to their lives on a daily basis.
