MacArthur Fellowship (鈥淕enius Grant鈥) recipient Angela Lee Duckworth was a management
consultant with McKinsey & Co. who quit at age 27 to teach seventh-grade math, earned
a doctorate in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and began teaching there,
focusing on grit and self-control, 鈥渨hich predict success both academically and professionally.鈥
In math teacher terms, Duckworth + business/teaching acumen + Ph.D. = grit theory.
In short, grit (aka perseverance) trumps IQ. You can鈥檛 dramatically elevate IQ, but
you can boost your grit quotient. It all adds up to this: You can learn how to build and improve your resilience and succeed in your career.
Cue 鈥楬igh Hopes鈥
鈥淗igh Hopes鈥 is an upbeat song first done by Frank Sinatra in 1959 and covered by the likes of Henry Mancini and . It features a persistent ant that singlehandedly moves a rubber tree plant 鈥 despite popular opinion that 鈥渁n ant can鈥檛 move a rubber tree plant.鈥
Now cue Duckworth鈥檚 TED Talks presentation, titled In it, she explains that as a seventh-grade math teacher she was surprised that the smartest kids weren鈥檛 always the ones who excelled. What drove success in her classroom? That question led to her research as a psychologist. Her discovery, in a word, 鈥済rit.鈥 Perseverance can push a smart but not brilliant seventh-grader to the top of the class or a smart businessperson to the forefront of their profession.
So, what is grit? In her TED talk, Duckworth says:
- 鈥淕rit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.鈥
- 鈥淕rit is having stamina.鈥
- 鈥淕rit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.鈥
- 鈥淕rit is living life like it鈥檚 a marathon, not a sprint.鈥
Duckworth did her TED Talks presentation in 2013. In 2016, in an article published
by The Week, she shared 鈥5 Research-Backed Ways to Increase Grit.鈥 Here they are:
5. Use Your Head to Follow Your Heart
The Week puts it this way: 鈥淧ursue what interests you: It鈥檚 hard to stick with something over the long haul if you don鈥檛 care.鈥 So:
- Look to your past for clues, and look to your skill sets, too. Use academics, internships, jobs, and networking to advance the hunt.
- Once you find your passion, follow the path it sets for you, and find a mentor to
guide you. A good mentor or role model can save you time and help you build resilience
needed to achieve excellence, Duckworth says.
4. Once You Know What You Want, Practice It Deliberately
Duckworth says excelling at your passion requires 鈥渄eliberate practice,鈥 a label coined by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a specialist in expert human performance in a variety of pursuits. It鈥檚 about goals, how you set and reach them through years of intelligent practice. It鈥檚 also about 鈥渨orking in a very diligent way on your weaknesses,鈥 Duckworth says.
The key to advancing is experiential, she says. Changing how you experience something can heighten your understanding, advance your skill sets, and improve resilience.
The Week cites , a former Navy SEAL who says the focus in his military training was analysis of events. SEALs examine what went right in training, but the lion鈥檚 share of time is spent dissecting what went wrong and figuring out how to improve.
Waters concurred with Duckworth on the benefits of shifting perspectives. He said he approached the hard-core training as a game. He told The Week, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to have fun with it and you鈥檝e got to keep your eye on the bigger picture.鈥
Take that mindset into your career and you鈥檒l be the essence of work resilience.
3. Use Hope to Sustain a Mindset of Success
Hope is an important part of the journey from discovery of your passion to mastery. You鈥檝e got to believe it will happen to make it happen, Duckworth says.
Duckworth had a book published in 2016 that bears her TED Talks title, 鈥淕rit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.鈥 The Week shared this excerpt: This kind of hope 鈥渞ests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. 鈥業 have a feeling tomorrow will be better鈥 is different from 鈥業 resolve to make tomorrow better.鈥 The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again.鈥
That applies if you鈥檙e a seventh-grader trying to conquer mathematics or a project
manager trying to overcome professional obstacles. At day鈥檚 end, it鈥檚 about resolving
to learn, grow, and improve.
2. Have a Purpose Beyond Money and Prestige
After years of research involving thousands of people, Duckworth concluded that people with true grit 鈥渁re dramatically more motivated than others to seek a meaningful, other-centered life.鈥
That means they know the benefits of what they do and who benefits, and it becomes their purpose, or, per this excerpt from the book version of 鈥淕rit,鈥 their calling:
鈥淭hree bricklayers are asked, 鈥榃hat are you doing?鈥 The first says, 鈥業 am laying bricks.鈥
The second says, 鈥業 am building a church.鈥 The third says, 鈥業 am building the house
of God.鈥 The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a
calling.鈥
1. Get Your Grit on Through Osmosis
Yes, this is about unconsciously absorbing grittiness through exposure to gritty folk. It鈥檚 Duckworth鈥檚 pro tip on amplifying perseverance with minimal effort.
Choose to work and play with gritty people, and your grit quotient will increase.
This tip alone won鈥檛 bring the mastery you crave, but it could as part of Duckworth鈥檚
overall approach to harnessing the power of passion and resilience.
USF Can Help You Get Gritty
All five of Duckworth鈥檚 grit factors are at play in academic settings.
- You can explore a variety of fields in search of your passion or in confirming that something is your passion.
- Academic rigors are practice at its best, from textbook to internship to guidance from teachers and advisors, including research and internship opportunities.
- The educational process includes exploration of the beneficial other-centered purposes of professions and skill sets.
- And there鈥檚 no shortage of gritty academic social circles on USF鈥檚 three campuses.
- As for hope, academic degrees and certification programs are all about 鈥渢he expectation that our own efforts can improve our future.鈥
For the nitty gritty, consider professional development options offered through the
USF Office of Career Training and Professional Education.