Ep 173 Book Series: Unleashing Grit: Insights from Angela Duckworth's Book Grit
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. This is always one of my favorite times of the month when we talk about a book. And today we are talking about the book grit by Angela Duxworth Duckworth. And if you haven't jumped in, this is going to be good because I have probably a hundred post it notes and tabs on this one and tons of highlights.
Sara Mayer: So we are here to talk about crushing our goals and everything that gets in the way. Grit is a key component of that. So if you haven't[00:01:00] dived into the book and haven't gotten started, it's okay. We do a nice summary on this call and then we have our virtual live discussion next week where you can discuss the book.
Sara Mayer: So Angela Duckworth is a psychologist and a researcher and she became fascinated with this concept of grit. Grit really is passion and perseverance for long term goals and how this differs from traditional measures is it's really going beyond talent and intelligence. So in the beginning, when she was researching some recruits at the marines, she was realizing that there were.
Sara Mayer: People who their entire life wanted to go to West Point. So the military Academy, actually not the Marines and their entire life, they've had a goal of getting into West Point [00:02:00] and getting through this program. And yet. They were dropping out in like the first three months. And so she really wanted to dive in and find out why that was the case.
Sara Mayer: Obviously they had a goal, they had a passion for it, but there was no perseverance and. That's where she discovered this grit component. So passion is not just about liking something, but having this deep enduring interest and perseverance is the ability to maintain the effort and focus over the longterm.
Sara Mayer: So what she found is that the highly successful people had. A kind of determination that played out in two ways. So first these examples were people who were unusually resilient and hardworking. And second, they knew in a very deep way what it [00:03:00] was they wanted. So they not only had determination, they had direction.
Sara Mayer: And it was the combination of passion and perseverance that made These high achievers who actually did complete their goal special. And in fact, they had grit. So that is the coolest part. So this is where it became her life's work. And it's now turned into this concept and book of grit. So there's some great examples at the beginning of the two components of grit, passion and perseverance.
Sara Mayer: And one question that comes up is what about talent? And so she says in the book, in the most general sense, talent is the sum of a person's abilities, his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, expertise, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn and grow.
Sara Mayer: And [00:04:00] so there reveals the struggle most of us have when we try to define talent with any precision, because there's a lot of different gifts out there. So talent does take a play in it, but it does not play as much as you think when, whether or not you will finish or achieve your goals or others will.
Sara Mayer: She also states here that superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities each learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into a habit and then are fitted together into a synchronized whole. There's nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions.
Sara Mayer: Only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly and altogether produce excellence. I love that because so many people think that they have to [00:05:00] have this tremendous talent in order to be successful in order to achieve their goals. And what they're basically saying here, it's dozens of small activities, which done over time do produce the result.
Sara Mayer: Excellent. So there's two components of grit as we talked about passion and perseverance. And so let's talk about cultivating passion for a minute. So there are several strategies for discovering and nurturing passion in various aspects of life. So one example would be to experience everything. Years ago, probably four or five years ago, I set a yearly theme of being creative and exploring my creative side.
Sara Mayer: And I decided that I would experience more creative artsy things. I took a painting class. [00:06:00] I wasn't so great at it. I took a pottery class, which I really enjoyed and I got good at. Making pottery. The problem with that was I was creating a lot of pottery. I took a planting class. I did various things on the creative side that normally wouldn't fit into my daily life.
Sara Mayer: And I had a couple rules that if I signed up for a four week class, I had to go all four weeks. I didn't need to continue. And I just had to be open to the experience. And that's a great way to cultivate passion, to determine if you're really passionate about something. There needs to be an alignment between passion and goals for sustained motivation.
Sara Mayer: Really making sure that you are able to sustain that passion. So there are a couple of things that she points out in the book [00:07:00] that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many things, she says, eventually both of us gave up the drawing and painting, gave up the silk screening, gave up the textile design and concentrated on ceramic work, because that is where we felt our true interest lies.
Sara Mayer: So you don't need to do everything, but if you try things, this is how you can cultivate passion. And there's a formula that she has here that really determines whether or not you will achieve its skill. Times effort equals achievement and talent times effort equals skill. Really, Thinking about cultivating passion is about experiencing things and it's about determining.
Sara Mayer: Is this something you want to continue with? I also have one note [00:08:00] that skill is not necessarily the same thing as achievement with or without. Effort, your talent is nothing more than your unmet potential without effort. Your skill is nothing more than what you could have done, but didn't with effort, talent becomes skill.
Sara Mayer: And at the very same time. Effort makes skill productive. So again, with effort, talent becomes skill. And at the very same time, effort makes skill productive. So let's talk a little bit about developing perseverance. So there is a significant component about developing perseverance, because as I mentioned, I was not really great at some of the pottery I was working on.
Sara Mayer: Let's be real. Some of it didn't turn out great. And It was easy for me to say this isn't really a longterm thing. I'm not trying to become a [00:09:00] world famous pottery expert. I'm just doing this for my theme. It would have been easy to quit. It would have been easy for me to give myself an out. And it would have been easy for me to be really hard on myself when I was destroying the pot for the sixth time.
Sara Mayer: And there is this power in developing perseverance, but it doesn't, it's not for the faint of heart. And it does take a growth mindset to build perseverance. And that's really about the exploration of techniques and overcoming those setbacks and adversity on the path to goals. And I think this is a great reminder that many times we Don't do things because we're protecting ourselves from the failure, the potential failure.
Sara Mayer: And maybe we're missing out on a big [00:10:00] opportunity. So there are many examples of individuals who've demonstrated extraordinary perseverance in the face of challenges. But I always love to talk about Michael Jordan. Because we talk about how great he is and how many wins he has and how amazing and dynamic he was at getting the ball in the basket.
Sara Mayer: But we don't talk about all the times that he wasn't able to do that or what it took for him to have the perseverance to carry on. We don't talk about the fact that JK Rowling, she didn't get her book deal on the first time often enough. And so I think there's power in talking about the failures. I think it's time that we truly talk about the lesson in learning how to persevere.
Sara Mayer: So when you're talking about, developing these [00:11:00] new passions, it definitely starts with an interest. And then it comes to the capacity to the point where you have to have the capacity to practice, to persevere through those moments where you may not be good at it. And sometimes being an amateur and starting out on something you don't know is really difficult.
Sara Mayer: But the third component is purpose. And that's really what ripens passion. That's what makes the work matter. And fourth is hope and hope is rising to the occasion of perseverance and. So she discusses how this process comes about, but passion for your work is about discovery followed by a lot of development and then a lifetime of deepening.
Sara Mayer: And interests, really are not discovered one at a time. [00:12:00] They're, sometimes you may have a ton of interests and then other times you may not. So let's talk a little bit about Grit in education and parenting, because this comes up. So in the concept, context of education, both for students, teachers, and parents, there is not a lot of research out there about how to foster grit or how to teach grit.
Sara Mayer: And I think that's one of the things that. Is maybe missing from this, but she does talk about in parenting lessons, how parents who push their children, you must get up, you must get up, you must get up or coddle their children. There's two swings of that. And so of course, as you would guess, the middle is the part where [00:13:00] it does allow people to develop that grit.
Sara Mayer: Now, when trying to practice grit, there are some strategies for applying grit in your daily life and career path. And the first one is deliberate practice. So honing in on skills and achieving expertise and really deliberately putting yourself in positions of not being the professional, being the amateur.
Sara Mayer: Really reflecting on how that works and what you're learning now along your goal crushing journey, you are going to meet some milestones and you are going to experience setbacks. And one of the ways to develop grit is to grow that from. The inside out, and that [00:14:00] is where you really purposefully put yourself in positions.
Sara Mayer: I'm flipping to this page that you know that you are born with tremendous potential. And the real question is whether or not you're tapping into that. Potential, you're facilitating that growth mindset and achieving that, and that's part of the goal journey. So when you do not meet your goal or a section of your goal and objective that you're working on, putting into your process, some cheerleading around that and saying, good, glad you tried it.
Sara Mayer: Didn't work out. Let's rebound and reclassify that. Now there are some criticisms and controversies around grit, such as concerns about overemphasis on perseverance and maybe neglecting some of the other factors. So I think that. Some of the limitations that they bring up are valid, that it's [00:15:00] difficult to measure perseverance and everybody's obstacles are different.
Sara Mayer: However, personally, when trying to determine grit, whether How gritty you are, whether or not you are actually demonstrating your best and pushing yourself in one of the sections. Let me see here really quick. I gotta find, I have to find it. I keep going to the same page. In one of the sections, it talks about setbacks and the ability to bounce back and not get stuck on that.
Sara Mayer: And she talks a lot about setting goals in the top level, the mid level and the low level because many times our big goals are, have a lot of mini steps. While there is some controversy around too much on perseverance, I think there's a lot of tactics in here that help you reflect on that. So I encourage you to really [00:16:00] think about your own experience with grit and goal pursuit and whether or not you give up too easily or you continue going, growing.
Sara Mayer: And remember that grit is all about. First, your interest, second, your practice, third, your purpose, and finally hope. And that's really rising to the occasion. And sometimes that's what we need to do. So I encourage you to set your goals, break them down, and really Dive into that passion and perseverance that will lead to the grit.
Sara Mayer: Now, the grit is a tool for long term success and fulfillment. So I encourage you to really dive into this topic. Join us for the live discussion of the book club, which is on Monday. every month, the third [00:17:00] Monday of the month, and we'd love to have you join us. So if you haven't liked and subscribed to this podcast, please do that.
Sara Mayer: Now consider leaving a review and join the book club, go to www. sarahmayer. com slash join book club, and you can join us on. The discussion about this book, as well as next month book, next month's book, she builds by Jada Stelner. All right, everyone. It's time to crush your goals and everything that gets in the way.
Sara Mayer: So you don't have to work double time. Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community. Thanks for tuning in.
