Category: Grit

This book was recommended to me by a Fund Manager of a VC fund that I had done due-diligence for, called Grit Lab VC. One of the 2 Fund managers had been working in the VC field for more than 25 years and has worked with some companies that were or are now titans in the industry, such as Nokia and Sun Microsystems. This Manager told me that times and times again, the thing that she has recognised as having the biggest impact on making entrepreneurs successful is grit: the power of not giving up, of pushing through walls when everything seems like is not working and you will fail.

As I see myself as a person that’s very much driven by passion and determination, I have fell in love with this book. Angela, the author, describes in this book how, after years of research, she has come to the conclusion that passion and grit are an indicator for future success, even more than IQ or even talent. She wrote the book around describing what grit is, how humans can develop it in themselves and in their colleagues in order to achieve more milestones.

To start with, I’ve finally understood the definition of grit from the book: Angela defines it as letting your passion for that specific thing you want to accomplish to drive you and allow it to give you the power to push through the things that seem impossible to accomplish or that you don’t necessarily like doing. The author mentions that her research showed that talent and intelligence are not a predictable factor of success, in fact she mentions that talent can be a blocker for performance – since people tend to put in less effort when they know they are talented in some aspect. Researching how people serving in the military, salesmen and even high-school graduates perform, she puts emphasis on the fact that only grit is the most trustworthy indicator of whether military people will be able to finalise their intense trainings, salesmen will be able to over perform in their job and reach their sales targets and whether high school graduates will finalise their studies.

Angela’s research has shown that there are mainly 4 things behind grit: interest: being attached with the work you do, purpose: having a strong feeling that the thing you are building or the work you are doing is in the benefit of others; hope: believing that you will figure things out and that you will achieve the milestones you have proposed to yourself to; and practice: being focused on becoming better at what you do;

The second key learning that I have got from this book is that loving what you do is not sufficient: you have to commit every day to what you have to do. Angela advises that one should break the big, audacious goals into everyday smaller tasks so that they are easier to achieve, to prevent becoming demotivated and in the end, to pave the way everyday towards bigger milestones. It is something that I had starting to apply after reading this book: I set myself big goals at the beginning of each year or each week, and then break that goal into every day tasks: it is unbelievable how one can increase their productivity and achieve a higher success rate.

The third learning point from this book is to be true to myself and commit to what I am good at. The author repeatedly mentions that even though grit is biological (although it can also be developed with time), what you work on is having a direct impact on the “level of grit”: for example, you should choose to work on something that you know you are excelling at, makes you perform at your peak capacity and you love doing. This has proven to be true in my experience: the determination I have to be successful is a lot higher in my current business since I love entrepreneurship, marketplaces and start-ups, compared to how I would have performed if I would have worked in an NGO.

“Grit, the power of passion and perseverance” also makes a strong point on how we can instil this type of thinking in children. The author believes that parents should always teach their children to work hard rather than simply rely on talent. Nonetheless, children will absorb information like a sponge no matter is good or bad and school especially is rewarding the latter instead of the former. Angela mentions an experiment ran in the 90s by 2 American teachers that have started grading their pupils based on their level of work and involvement rather than natural talent. The results on this are that the grades of the students grew higher than the nation’s average and it was a strong proof for the students that hard work does matter and improvement is possible.

I believe this last point can be easily translated into how good leaders should act: they should appreciate the hard work and willingness to improve of their colleagues even when the output is not always as expected. It is this type of behaviour that makes people develop grit over time and helps them work harder and better.

One surprising fact that I have learned from this book is that grit is a lot influenced by growth mindset: a growth mindset produces an optimistic self talk within oneself and the latter makes your persevere in front of adversity.

My key takeaways from this book are the following:

• Grit can be biological: as most genes, you can inherit it or not from your parents, depending if they have cultivated it during their lifetime. It also depends a lot of one’s childhood and if the parents rewarded hard-work over talent;
• One should only take on long projects only if he or she is passionate about it; otherwise grit will be missing and it has a great influence over the success of the project;
• Grit can be contagious: if one can join groups in which the members are always striving for success and work hard, the chances to emulate this sort of behaviour are very high.

One thing I implement is that in my business, I try to focus as much as possible on the things that I enjoy doing and I know I also excel at. Otherwise, whenever I switch, I lose focus, I become demotivated and it takes me a lot longer to finalise the tasks. With this in mind, I chose a co-founder that has complementary skills with min and I will keep this in mind when we’ll need to expand the team and start hiring.

Overall, I found this book a bit repetitive and at times, common sense – such as the fact that hard work and grit are a more important factor in success rather than talent and skills. Most of the concepts are also present in Carol Dweck’s book “Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset”. However, for me was interesting to dissect this topic and learn about what stands behind it. I also enjoyed that the book touched on more topics rather on the benefits of grit alone. If I were to recommend this book, I would probably recommend the self-help section. Even so, this book goes well with a “self discovery book” since if one realises that he or she is working in a field for which the passion doesn’t really exist, there is not much you can with the book starting from this point.

One problem our society lives with is the rigid mindset we have, believing that achievement lays in the power of talent or chance and we end up neglecting the real reason why people achieve success: long-term perseverance and passion. GRIT by Angela Duckworth is a book which talks about these principles beside some others like persistence, taking action after failure or hardworking, which she called more simply: GRIT. The book explains where grit comes from, how it can be developed and how our life can be adapted to get a gritty mindset. My personal expectations about this book were that I will become a more persevering person, not letting failure to turn me down. Failure always discouraged me and was a big enemy in my road to success because I often gave up because of the first obstacles in my way.

Grit is structured it three main parts: What is grit and why it matters, which includes the first 5 chapters, Gworing grit from the inside out, which includes the next four chapters, and Growing grit from the inside in, which is composed from the last four.

The first chapter of this book is called “SHOWING UP” and, just as its name it reveals how Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and a professor, discovered how it is grit which show up the way to achievement, making all the differences in people’s life, rather than the potential we born with. During some years she held a research, trying to figure out what leads people to success in many domains. Instead of talent, which everyone thought was the hey, Angela formulated the idea of grit: a combination of passion and perseverance. Moreover, she gave examples of success situations where grit even predicted more than IQ: in army special forces, in sales and in college GPA. This reveals that no matter the field of activity, those with pursuit of achievement are those with the highest results.

“DISTRACTED BY TALENT” (or the second chapter) is how our society is nowadays. Even though we tend to say that hard work is key (because we are actually aware of it), we have a natural-talent bias. This is why, when some study participants were asked about which one of two entrepreneurs they prefer they chose the one who showed natural inclination for the same aptitudes the other one worked for. Beside business, the book gives also an example in politics, which truth strikes me a little: Hillary and Bill Clinton. Most of the people choose Bill to the detriment of Hillary, even if she worked hard to fit the role: he is gifted. Another idea here would be that there is a higher inclination toward grit when people do not perceive themselves as talented. Knowing that you don’t have the natural skill makes you want to work more, knowing that this is the only way to achieve the same level of success.

The most interesting thing in this chapter is that it made me realize that this focus on talent was destructive even in my life. When I was 11 I started playing tennis, I loved the sport, especially for its elegance. At that time, the passion was not enough, because I felt that I am not good enough, that I don’t have a gift for it and instead of working harder, I gave up. A few years later I found myself terribly regretting it because I could have been playing it even now.

The third chapter, “EFFORT COUNTS TWICE”, evolves around a scheme which says that effort invested in TALENT results in SKILL, upon which if you add again TALENT gives back ACHIEVEMENT. That’s why it counts twice. With lack of effort, that mostly cherished talent is nothing. In the book there are few examples of people perceived as un-talented or not smart enough, until they started to put in effort. That was when they had great results. A psychological test called Treadmill Test showed that those able to stick with physical effort are those who will touch their goals, and what is more, if they come back day after day to improve their results success will be a piece of cake, because they have an enormous potential, just because of being gritty. Therefore, natural ability will be suppressed by those being gritty.

“HOW GRITTY ARE YOU” can be determined by completing the Grit Scale, and it can become higher by following the strategy between the Goal Hierarchy in this fourth chapter. Therefore, a 10 questions survey can show the level of grittiness a person has which can be split into a perseverance and a passion score, as these are the two main components of grit. Regarding the Goal Hierarchy, it represents a goal setting structure. The top-level goal is the one who always has to be in your mind, while the mid and low level ones are there only to lead you to the end purpose. They are specific, short term tasks which, most importantly, can be replaced if they cannot be done. In this way, the journey to the purpose is flexible, therefore you can change the path, but never the destination.

I have recently used this learning in an everyday mid-level task which is very important for me: to have a clear mind in the morning and therefore during each and every day. For a week or so I tried to wake up and go to gym at the first hour, but I never managed to wake up early enough. This is why I changed the low-level task: instead of going in the morning, I started to meditate. And it worked very well for me, getting me just to the same goal.

GRIT GROWS. And the 5th chapter of this part teaches the reader how. It is known that there are some genetic factors which determine your grit level, but they are overtaken by those created by environment. Therefore, grit is a power in our hands which can lead us to success and it’s only up to us if we want to use it or not.

The survey shows that the more mature a person is, the more grit they have but what I proposed myself is to become gritty long before getting old. The best time to start is right now and this is possible with the help of the next part of the book: Growing grit from the inside out.

The first way of growing grit from the inside out is through INTEREST, or passion. The thing about passion is that work is not felt as work when we are doing it from passion. But in order to find that passion you have to experiment a lot, and don’t expect to know it from the very beginning because it is not a must, it just have to be found.

As a personal example, when I was in the 11th grade I was very scared because my colleagues started working for their faculty admission and I still did not know what to do in life. The best thing i could have done was to experiment a lot and fortunately this is what I did. I started pilot courses and I organized a conference, and that was when I realized that this is what I want to do: to create something for this society, to get involved and work with people, to change and grow them and their country, and how else if not through entrepreneurship.

The next thing after discovering a direction is to stick with it, to find people with same interests, to find a mentor in that field, to dig deeper. This is just why I applied to the university where I am now, without reading grit at that time.

The second way of growing grit is PRACTICE, but not the quantity of practice matters here but the quality, which makes the difference between improvement and stagnation. An effective way of practicing is deliberate practice, setting a goal which cannot be immediately achieve and in which you really believe. I have truly experienced the difference of working on something while having a goal in which I believe beyond or while not having it. In high-school for example when I had to learn on subjects like economics which pursued my purpose in entrepreneurship rather than physics or geometry where I had to force myself. The writer says that after working you get feedback, then you practice more relying on it, until you achieve your goal. Then you do like this with every goal until reaching the greatest purpose. This deliberate practice can be a painful challenge mentally, but it has a reward called Flow, which is enjoyable and effortless. This is a state of mind when you experience ease and enjoyment when doing something which felt really difficult at the beginning. Everyone experiences flow in different ways, the first experience of mine with it was in middle school with mathematics . At the beginning it felt horribly hard and I felt stuck, but after regular practice and work it became my favorite subject, becoming really good at it.

The third way is by PURPOSE. There are two large ways of achieving happiness, the personal interest, which releases pleasure and the purpose, which is a way of serving the society, other peoples need. Our society lacks of many things and finding a way of changing it for better gives one the sense of having a mission, in this way wanting to work more and more for it. A described in the book of doing this is finding the spark, the interest, then watching someone who lives with purpose, as a role model and afterwards dedicating to make a difference.

On a personal level, I love entrepreneurship (the domain in which I want to exceed) because through it I can change some things in the country that I live. One role model I have is Mihai Marcu, the entrepreneur who developed the first private hospital in Romania, where universal healthcare is so neglectful and poor.

The last but certainly not least component of girt is HOPE. This hope has nothing to do with expecting and waiting for things to fall from the sky. This kind of hope relies on personal power. The difference stays in perspective, because if you believe that the you are not able to change the circumstances, you will end up suffering and living with it, instead of believing that you are in control, and solving the problem. Gritty people take responsibility of the cause, only in this way they can stop it. After reading this I am never thinking that I am just not good at some things, like public speaking. The first times when I tried to present something in public I just started rambling and my face turned red, when i finished I thought that I am just not good at it. But then, after few experiences I started taking some notes and repeating by myself the speech and the pitch went very well. The situation was not hopeless, only we make it feel like this when we are not taking responsibility of the reason.

The second part of the book “GROWING GRIT FROM THE OUTSIDE IN” is moving from the internal components of grit to the external ones: parenting, coaching and culture. The first two are designated mostly for parents and teachers but there are a few lessons to keep in mind for everyone. For example, it is better to aim bigger goals, especially for children which would work through challenge and develop a growth mindset. Another interesting fact is that extra-curricular activities develop grit in a sense that teenagers which are doing them learn to stay committed to a task which is not mandatory. The children mindset is not fixed yet, it is flexible and has a lot of potential for growing. Adults have it too but unfortunately in our culture there is the belief that we can not grow more than who we already are.

The “CULTURE” you live in is the main way of growing grit from the outside in if you are an adult. Surrounding yourself with persevering people who have big goals is an efficient way to become grittier, because even as mature people we tend to internalize the behaviors of those around us. A nice example from the book was given by the Finnish word: “sisu” which is a national trait of a people that believe in determination and accomplishment beyond obstacles. I always felt that that becoming friend with people with accomplishments is a way of growing, but now I realize it is also a way of becoming grittier.

After reading this book I realized that passion, purpose and culture are elements that I do not lack in my stage of grittiness and I am proud of it. Where my learnings laid was in consistency, in perseverance and in hope. Regarding consistency, I realized that I should not jump from one business idea to another, as I will end up doing no business. I have to stick to one, develop the concept and not give up even there are difficulties encountered. This is taking me to the concept of perseverance. Since I read the book I am always repeating myself “To be gritty means to fall down seven times and rise eight”. Because no obstacles should ever stop myself from encountering the higher goals, even if the little tasks on the way will be changed. Another thing to improve for me is hope, and I am doing this by constantly talking to myself when I’m encountering difficulties, saying that everything can be changed, that the situation is not forever stuck and that I can do something for sure in order to change it.

In my opinion Grit was exactly what every entrepreneur at the beginning of the journey should read. Knowing that only you and only your perseverance and effort is what gets you and your future business to success is a truly meaningful lesson. For me the purpose of the book was met, my grit score showing 3.5 instead of 3.3 reading it. Grit also opened my mind for a “follow through” mindset. Effort and persistence are the most meaningful ways to success and my perception of hard work changed a lot. Before, I thought that if I am smart accomplishment will follow me, but it’s the opposite, I have to follow it. Sometimes hard work can lead to procrastination and doubt but here comes the motivation, the passion and the purpose, generating flow.

To conclude, I can say that this is a book which can change lives and I am so grateful that I have read it. Grit is a way of living, of approaching every challenge as an opportunity to grow.

Abstract

Grit refers to the zeal that an individual has to pursue his long-term goals even in the face of obstacles. Persistence towards achievement of the goal is the key to grit. The study is an attempt to develop better understanding of the nature of grit and its correlates in young adults by elaborating on the experiencing of various everyday behaviors shown by young adults.

Factors such as optimism, self-efficacy and resilience are expected to correlate positively to grit whereas those of stress, anxiety and depression are expected to have an inverse relationship with grit which formed the premise for this study. Results indicate a positive relationship of grit with optimism, self-efficacy and resilience and a negative correlation of stress, anxiety and depression with grit.

Grit can be described as a personality trait characterized by passion and persistence for a long-term goal being pursued by the individual. Any distractions or obstacles do not swerve him from the pursuit of his goal. Those who show grit are able to self-regulate themselves and postpone their need for any reinforcement while working on the task. For a long time, it could not be deciphered as to what is that ‘thing’ which determines success: skills, talent, genes, IQ, luck or fate? However, subsequent research could not establish a positive relationship. However, evidence was found for grit being the highest predictor of an individual achieving success (Duckworth et al, 2007).

One of the biggest indicators of grit would remain the ability of an individual to delay gratification while engaged in a task. Another characteristic would be the ability to stay at the task even in the face of any challenges that come their way. This characteristic delves a little deeper into the beliefs an individual has about his self, the self-efficacy. Obstacles or failures are not viewed as reasons to quit by gritty individuals, rather they take it as an opportunity to grow stronger and develop their skill set.

Resilience can be understood as the capacity of an individual to face the trials of life that one has to endure, whether these trials are related to their family life, vocational life, health, or financial issues. It has often been described as the ability to ‘bounce back’ from the pitfalls faces due to various stressors. Resilience involves maintaining flexibility and balance in your life as you deal with stressful circumstances and traumatic events.

The word optimism derives from the Latin word ‘optimum’ meaning ‘best’ indicating the tendency of an individual to believe in the best outcome. Optimists prefer to look at the bigger picture and hold global, encouraging expectancies about their future; they seldom cry about the unfairness of life. They are always open for adventure and take everything as a challenge to gain a new experience, seeing all mistakes and errors as opportunities to learn.

Stress can be understood as that uncomfortable feeling which is accompanied by biochemical, physiological and behavioral changes (Baum, 1990). Although, some amount of stress is considered essential for achievement in life as well as safety, high levels of stress have been reported to harm the health of an individual by adversely affecting immune, neuro-endocrine, cardiovascular and central nervous systems (Anderson, 1998).

Anxiety refers to the worry an individual experiences with regard to future events and the fear he experiences for the present. This anxiety is mostly a generalized feeling which pervades any situation which is considered threatening. An individual tends to avoid any situation that generates anxiety in him. Anxiety has also been found to be associated with various physical and psychological symptoms. Anxiety is, further, a reaction to stress.

Those not happy with their lot generally report themselves to be depressed. However, in most cases, this pertains to the mood change that happens when an individual experiences some sadness in life or are stressed due to various life circumstances. This depressed mood may serve to be beneficial also for some by providing them an opportunity to explore their self as well as their lot. Whereas clinical depression is a severe, pervasive condition that debilitates an individual in all manners, people with clinical depression often find it difficult to engage in any type of activity.

With stress being a precursor to anxiety and depression (Mirescu & Gould, 2006), the study was undertaken with a view to establish the relationship between grit and these three variables to lay the groundwork towards better understanding of the protective nature of grit. Further, the dearth of sufficient literature on the correlates of grit led to the study seeking to understand the nature of the relationship between grit and self-efficacy, resilience and optimism.

Objectives

To study the relationship of grit with optimism, resilience, self-efficacy, stress, anxiety and depression.

Hypotheses

• There will be a positive correlation between grit and optimism of college-going adults.
• There will be a positive correlation between grit and resilience of college-going adults.
• There will be a positive correlation between grit and self-efficacy of college-going adults.
• There will be a negative correlation between grit and stress of college-going adults.
• There will be a negative correlation between grit and anxiety of college-going adults.
• There will be a negative correlation between grit and depression of college-going adults.

Sample

The total sample for the present study consisted of 120 college-going young adults. The age range of the sample was 18-24 years with an average age of 22.9 years. The subjects participating in the study, although belonging to various cities, were residing in the same city during the tenure of the research project. Although, demarcation on the basis of gender was not done, the sample consisted of 65 females and 55 males.

Tools

Grit Scale (GS)

The Grit Scale constructed and standardized by Duckworth et al. (2007) is designed to measure grit by assessing individuals on perseverance of efforts and consistency of interest. The original scale consisted of 27 items which was reduced to 17 items for the final version after further analysis. The response alternatives range on a 5-point Likert scale from ‘not like me at all’ to ‘very much like me at all’. High score indicates high levels of grit. The scale reports high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) ranging between 0.77 and 0.85 (Duckworth et al., 2007).

Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale

Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was constructed and standardized by Connor and Davidson (2003) with the aim of assessing resilience in adults. The scale measures resilience through 25 items followed by 5 response option ranging from not true at all to true nearly all the times. The scores on the scale range from 0 to 4 with a high score indicating high resilience. The reliability of the scale was established to be sound through test- retest method. The validity of the scale has been established through construct validity.

Life Orientation Test-Revised

Life Orientation Test-Revised was constructed and standardized by Carver, Scheier, & Segerstrom (2010) with the aim to assess optimism in adults. The scale measures optimism through 10 items (revised form) followed by 5 response options strongly disagree to strongly agree. The scores on the scale range from 0 to 4 with high score indicate high hopefulness and confidence about the future, positive about every step that leads to success. The test-retest reliability of the scale has been set up. The validity of the scale has been established through criterion validity.

General Self-Efficacy Scale

The General Self-efficacy Scale is a ten-item scale standardized by Schwarzer & Jerusalem (1995) with the aim of self-reporting perceptions of one’s self-efficacy. The items are followed by four response options ranging from not true at all to exactly true. Total score on the scale can range from 10 to 40 with a high score indicating higher self-efficacy. Internal consistency for the scale was found to be appropriate with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.76 to 0.90. The scale was reported to correlate positively with emotion, optimism, and work satisfaction and negatively correlated to depression, health complaints, stress, burnout and anxiety.

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21 (DASS21)

DASS21 constructed and standardized by Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) is a set of three self-report scales designed to measure the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. The 21-item scale measures the three emotional states keeping in view researcher as well as clinical specifications. Each item is scored from 0 (did not apply to me at all over the last week) to 3 (applied to me very much or most of the time over the past week). High scores on depression scale indicate a self-disparaging, dispirited and pessimistic outlook; on anxiety scale indicate an apprehensive and panicky personality; and on stress scale indicates an inability to relax, high irritability and intolerance towards delay. Internal consistency of the subscales was high, with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.94, 0.88, and 0.93 for depression, anxiety, and stress respectively. Construct validity was further supported by moderately high correlations with indices of convergent validity (0.65 and 0.75), and lower correlations with indices of divergent validity (range −0.22 to 0.07).

Procedure

The research design for the present study is correlational in nature. The study attempted to understand the relationship of grit with stress, anxiety and depression as well as self-efficacy. The scales were administered in small group of 6-8 subjects at a time. The collection of the questionnaires was done immediately after the subjects answered all the questions and it was ensured that the subjects had answered all the questions.

Results & Discussion

To test the hypotheses set, the data obtained was analyzed with the help of Pearson’s Product Moment Method. The first hypothesis under study investigated relationship between optimism and grit. The correlation coefficient was found to be +0.61. Hence, the first hypothesis was accepted. The second hypothesis sought to find out the relationship between grit and resilience. The correlation coefficient was found to be +0.65. Hence, the second hypothesis was accepted.

The third hypothesis set stated that there will be a positive correlation between grit and self-efficacy of young adults. The correlation coefficient was found to be +0.48, which indicates a positive correlation between the two variables. Thus, the hypothesis set is accepted. The fourth hypothesis explored the nature of the relationship between stress and grit with the correlation coefficient being found to be -0.35 which indicates a negative correlation between the two variables. Thus, the hypothesis set is accepted.

The fifth hypothesis set states that there will be a negative correlation between anxiety and grit of college-going adults. The correlation coefficient was found to be -0.30 which indicates a negative correlation between the two variables. Thus, the hypothesis set is accepted. The sixth hypothesis under study stated that there will be a negative correlation between depression and grit of college-going adults. The correlation coefficient was found to be -0.49 which indicates a significant, negative correlation between the two variables. Thus, the hypothesis set is accepted.

Grit is a non-cognitive trait which can be understood in terms of an individual’s perseverance towards his/her long-term goals. A gritty individual can be described as someone who endures in efforts toward meeting goals despite a lack of instantaneous fulfillment; despite disappointment and hardships; and in the face of obstacles and challenges.

As individuals grow, dealing with life situations aid in their growth and they develop their ideals and role models. They are matured enough to formulate the long-term goals of life and are passionate about attaining those goals. Although, as yet in their adolescence, a sense of direction in life is present which helps direct them to the goals that they need to pursue in life; what they wish to achieve, where they wish to reach, what path would they like to take to achieve it is all set in their mind. Contrary to the previous generations, who were dependent on the adults of their family to help choose their life path; the youth today have many resources available to them to help them take an informed decision. Not only has awareness increased in the students and their parents; internships are available to help them explore the world of work; the internet also provides a rich source of vocation-related information. Assuming responsibility at this age is instrumental in forming a stable self-image and establishment of self-efficacious feelings.

Carl Rogers belonging to the humanist tradition in his theory of self-concept posited that an individual’s belief about his own self can influence his/her behaviour. Rogers’ conception of the self as composed of the real and the ideal self leads to congruence in personality. He believed that when a person’s ideal self is consistent with his actual experiences, he is in a state of congruence; otherwise incongruence, an undesirable state, prevails. As humans have a tendency to remain in or achieve a state of congruence, it is expected that they work towards integrating their real and ideal self. As an individual gains skills and integrates learning from various life experiences, he develops a more self-efficacious view of the self. And when one is aware of all that one can achieve, he would exert more efforts to complete that in spite of the obstacles present; hence, displaying higher levels of grit.

All variables pertain to goal attainment, grit is about achieving the goal; self-efficacy is about the belief in one’s ability to achieve the goal; resilience is the ability of an individual to move past hurdles to achieve his goals; and optimism is the belief that the outcome of an action will be positive. This involves attentiveness and introspection by the individual. Those exhibiting high levels of self-efficacy set challenging goals and maintain commitment towards them, any failure only serves at them intensifying their efforts at winning. Those resilient will fall, get up, brush themselves, get back in the field and achieve what they set out to do, albeit through a different path. Those optimistic display faith in things ending up right, even if they are not going right during the process. Thus, the observed result is as expected.

Depression is characterized by experiencing a lack of interest and pleasure in activities that previously provided satisfaction, lack of energy to deal with even daily/routine tasks, inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt. Whereas, grit is characterized by a zeal for achieving what the mind has been set to. A gritty person shows sustained efforts towards the achievement of his goal, however slow-moving the progress. Gritty individuals show intrinsic motivation; he may be disheartened at a point, but he never stops in the pursuit of his dream. Regan et al. (2013) remains another significant study which has examined grit and depression. Both the states are opposing in life force and, hence, the observed relationship is expected.

Anxiety and stress are characterized intense feelings of unease, worry and fear experienced when the situation ahead is unpredictable or seems to be insurmountable. Elevated levels of anxiety and depression have been associated with increased occurrences of physical disease, relationship troubles and cognitive issues (Nutt, 2004). And lessened symptoms of the same indicate towards higher levels of well-being, optimal psychological functioning and experiences (Ryan & Deci, 2001). Subjective well-being, the cognitive and affective assessment of an individual’s life (Diener, 1994), remains a key approach within the hedonic paradigm of well-being and grit has been observed to relate to components of subjective well-being (Singh & Jha, 2008). Well-being used to occupy a significant position under the aegis of philosophy and has only recently started to influence the realm of science. The methods and approaches to improve the quality of life has become a major concern of the health industry, providing a spotlight not just for physical fitness, but on psychological health also.

Although, the study was not aimed at establishing the cause-and-effect relationship of grit with the other variables, it could be established that high levels of grit would correspond to lower levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Establishing a cause-and-effect interaction may aid psychologists as well as educators to help the young generation develop protective mechanisms against stress, anxiety and depression, the most pressing psychological issues in the youth at present. The youth are seemingly losing the ability to cope with any form of stressful situations which is highly detrimental not only for the individual and his family, but also to the society at large. The focus for all health professionals should remain trying to induce a more positive frame of reference in all individuals. The positive psychology movement also aims at achieving the same. Although neurotic and psychotic symptoms can’t be negated, laying the foundation of imbibing the positive traits at a young age should remain the major concern for all to help develop a more well-rounded personality.

The study was undertaken to gain better understanding of the relationship of grit with self-efficacy, stress, anxiety and depression. The analysis was done through Pearson’s Product Moment method of correlation which indicated grit to have a positive relationship with self-efficacy, optimism and resilience as well as a negative correlation with depression, stress and anxiety. These results indicate that having high levels of grit may aid an individual to combat excessive or negative stress, anxiety and depression as well as become better acquainted with one’s abilities and provide a new avenue for optimal development of personality.

References

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INTRODUCTION

The non-cognitive trait cited as grit have been receiving widespread attention as a predictor of success until now. When grit is introduced on schools as a subject, the students will score higher marks obviously. If schools are to take the measures to teach grit, what would be the core aim they tend to achieve? Is grit a character that can be taught in schools effectively? Will teaching grit in schools increase student’s grit level significantly? The questions about teaching grit can go on and on. Though grit is a trendy trait that determines one’s perseverance, teaching it in schools may be unproductive.

BACKGROUND

So far we have been relying on IQ to tell how intelligent an individual is, “ … but what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?”Angela[9]; driven by this concern Angela and her team set researches seeking other characters, other than intelligence, that would be useful to predict our achievements, after so many studies that involved many sectors “… one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success … it was grit.” Duckworth[9]. Duckworth describes grit as “the passion and perseverance essential for achieving long-term goals”[7,p.28]. It was not a surprise that after people started to realize what grit is and why students need it, they would try to find ways to teach students grit by any means. It is on the debate, whether grit can be taught in schools or used for research purposes. Many studies have been done so far regarding the success of students; the results obtained are far from impressive. Grit has been found to predict success according to various studies. This link is influential in finding whether educational institutions should include grit to see successful outcomes. However, there is no guarantee that schools can teach grit completely that will increase students grit level. For a long time, grit was considered to have a direct link with educational performance and success; however, nowadays people are starting to realize that including grit in the institutional curriculum is a total misstep. Key terms: Grit, cognitive and non-cognitive traits, academic performance and success, intentional and non-intentional efforts.

CONCLUSION

Even though being gritty means more to success, grit is a trait that can not and should not be taught in schools. The inconsistent relationship between grit and academic success, the weak effects of methods that would be used to increase grit level, the fact that grit being difficult to assess the progress made it not effective enough to be used as part of a school curriculum. Sudden appearance and development of grit have raised so many questions since its first discovery by Angela Duckworth. Grit is a character every student need to possess and this sparked up a debate about whether schools can teach grit or not. This topic is still in its early stages and institutions need a better understanding before actually teaching grit to students. Use of the scale with less knowledge may lead to unfair and easily corruptible grading.

REFERENCES

1. Ozelli, Kristin. 2016. “The Great Grit Debate.” Scientific American Mind 27 (4): 17–17. Polirstok, Susan. 2017.
2. “Strategies to Improve Academic Achievement in Secondary School Students: Perspectives on Grit and Mindset.” SAGE Open 7 (4): 215824401774511.
3. Wolters, Christopher A., and Maryam Hussain. 2014.
4. “Investigating Grit and Its Relations with College Students’ Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement.” Metacognition and Learning 10 (3): 293–311.
5. B. Lehrer and A. Duckworth, “Measuring true grit,” The Brian Lehrer Show, 3, 2016. New York City: WNYC. [Podcast]. Available: http://www.wnyc.org/story/measuring-true-grit/notes: [Accessed: 2 19,2018].
6. A. Duckworth, “Don’t grade schools on Grit,” nytimes.com, March 26, 2016. [Opinion]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/opinion/sunday/dont-grade-schools-on-grit.html, [Accessed: 2 17,2019].
7. A. Duckworth, “ What Is Grit? Should Schools Be Judged for How ‘Gritty’ Students Are?”
8. Leaders to learn from, 21, 2017. Washington, D.C.: Education week. [Youtube]. Available: https://youtu.be/T4leyKGz0BI [Accessed: 2 16,2019].
9. D. Willingham, ”Ask the cognitive scientist,” American Educator, 35., no.2, 28-44, summer 2016. [Journal] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1104456.pdf. [Accessed:2 24,2019].
10. Credé, Marcus, Michael C. Tynan, and Peter D. Harms. 2017. “Much Ado about Grit: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the Grit Literature.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 113 (3): 492–511
11. A. Duckworth, “Grit: The power of passion and perseverance” Ted talks, 9 May 2013. United States: Ted, [Youtube]. Available: https://youtu.be/H14bBuluwB8 [Accessed: 2 15,2019]

What does your grit score mean?

The Grit Scale measures an individual’s ability to sustain focus and interest while working toward long-term goals. We develop experience through hard work, which allows us to discover numerous new things that permit us to expand our minds and learn from them. This experience has taught us how to think critically to solve a difficult challenge and succeed. We can all work hard for a better future if we have the determination to persist in the face of difficulties to continue striving towards our goals. Concentration is critical since it ensures that our task is completed on time and to a higher standard.

Is perseverance a trait? Why?

Perseverance is a personality trait that inspires us to persevere in the face of adversity. It is also how success will help you, or at the very least how much one is willing to give up even when things appear hopeless. Without purpose or direction, it is impossible to attain success as a student. For instance, every day is a battle, some of us have a hard time getting to school but retaining perseverance is a goal and path that many of us strive for. However, it seems like you find it within yourself to do so because the prospect of a brighter tomorrow motivates you. If we come to think, the means of perseverance encourage us to seek the strength to do the seemingly impossible because we believe that anything is possible and consciously choose the ways for us to grow.

What is grit and perseverance?

Grit is the ability to reach your greatest goals, no matter what it takes, especially when it comes to sacrifice and difficult times. It predicts success whether short or long term. It has more to do with one’s character and dignity. Perseverance is linked to pride in accomplishment, and it also predicts long-term academic success. It can look a lot of different ways, including physical, mental, and emotional challenges. But despite all odds, is about learning how to sit with your darkness and soften into the discomfort. It helps us learn new skills and abilities which gives us hope to continue working hard even after having trouble or failure. Moreover, it allows us to support the people in our lives as they face challenges.

How do you train grit?

To acquire greater grit, you must first learn to have hope, and then learn that failing is fine as long as you don’t give up. If grit starts with passion, you need to know what you’re interested in, and more importantly, what you love. You must be specific about what you desire. One of the main reasons why many people don’t feel successful is that they don’t know what they want and are working toward each day. They also don’t feel like they’re engaged in meaningful endeavors, so their passion isn’t there. Purpose is something in which you can acquire a long-term interest. So, figure out what you want so that you have a strong desire to move forward on anything you want to accomplish. Prime enthusiasm when you look at your ambition, you have an emotional connection to it and a commitment. Write things you want to do and implement those experiences again. Lastly, Time to devote yourself to practice and develop from failure. Give yourself time to practice and learn to have that determination to continue what you start as you achieve those goals.