Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Codeveloped by Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, cognitive therapy trains depressive patients to use reason and common sense to counter black-and-white thinking about their problems. Situations that seem hopelessly grim can be reframed as temporary, solvable problems; mistakes cease to be seen as devastating commentaries on a patient’s incompetence and instead are viewed as natural occurrences that everyone undergoes and everyone can handle. Cognitive therapy goes hand-in-hand with grit, since it leads to the understanding that most limitations can be overcome with effort.

Developed by researcher Brent Roberts, the corresponsive principle states that people with good work habits tend to receive good feedback that reinforces the good habits, while those with poor habits have worse experiences that induce sullenness and reinforce bad habits. Gritty people, for example, tend to choose activities that reward grittiness, which in turn make participants more gritty.

Cognitive psychologist Anders Ericsson studied experts in many fields and discovered that, on average, they require 10,000 hours of practice, over roughly 10 years, to achieve elite status. Their practice isn’t a rote process but a deliberate one in which they search out weaknesses in their performance and focus on improving them. Experts also seek feedback; they “are more interested in what they did wrong—so they can fix it—than what they did right” (122). A good practice session takes strong effort; most experts can only practice three to five hours per day, and most take breaks after an hour or so.

Developed by Carol Dweck from her research into educational effectiveness, a fixed mindset is the view that intelligence is ingrained and that talent is more important than effort. This attitude tends to limit people’s options. Contrasting with this is a growth mindset that holds that intelligence can be improved and, with it, people’s abilities to learn and master new skills.

New Zealand social scientist Jim Flynn discovered that IQ scores have risen 15 points since the 1960s and 30 points over the past 100 years: “if you scored people a century ago against modern norms, they would have an average IQ score of 70—borderline for having an intellectual disability” (83). Researchers speculate that increased demand for abstract reasoning, both at school and work, have raised the scores, along with improvements in nutrition and health care.

The Grit Grid is a table that rates a student’s participation in extracurricular activities. It grants zero to two points for long-term after-school projects and adds zero to two achievement points for growth and success in each activity. A student who works for more than a year in two activities, makes progress, and achieves high success in those activities gets six points. At the other end, a student with no long-term outside activities gets zero points. The highest scorers tend to stay longer in college. Novice teachers who, in college, similarly participate in collegiate extracurricular projects tend to stay in the profession and do better at it.

Developed by Carol Dweck from her research into educational effectiveness, a growth mindset holds that intelligence can be improved and trained, and that problems can be overcome with effort. This contrasts with a fixed mindset that holds that raw talent is the chief determiner of success.

The first stage in the development of a skill is interest, the hook that snags young people, pulling them toward more and more participation in the activity. People can practice a skill set that they’re not interested in, but rarely will that give them the stamina to push through the difficult, dull, and uninspiring aspects that may crop up. Interest powers the practice that leads to expertise and, eventually, to a sense of purpose in service to others, which motivates people even more than simple fascination.

Learned optimism is a theory proposed by psychologist Martin Seligman whereby a person faced with a problem will tackle that issue on the belief that most roadblocks are temporary and fixable. Those who have experienced the contrary attitude, learned pessimism, tend to give up in the face of ordinary problems because they believe such difficulties are permanent and intractable.

A New York consultancy, McKinsey thrives on its team of super-bright researchers who bring an outsider’s perspective and a data-driven approach to solve sticky problems faced by corporations. McKinsey published a book, The War for Talent, that advocated hiring the smartest people possible, rating them on performance, and firing the least productive. This method is controversial, and some critics contend that its advocacy at Enron Corporation directly led to that company’s fraud scandal and bankruptcy.

Practice is the second stage of the development of skill, when the practitioner works hard—engaging in deliberate practice—to improve performance and achieve expertise. Coming after the interest stage and prior to the purpose stage, practice is the nitty-gritty of high performance. Elite pros never stop practicing but constantly seek to improve their skills.

Purpose, “the intention to contribute to the well-being of others” (146), is the third stage, after interest and practice, in the development of productive skills. Experts begin to see how their expertise can help people, which adds to the love for, and effort put into, practice. For grittier people, purpose “is a tremendously powerful source of motivation” (148).

Sampling is trying out different activities before settling on one to focus on. Sampling provides a young person with perspective on activities they find appealing; it also provides snippets of ability they can apply to their later passion projects. Athletes who sample various sports before specializing often develop extra physical skills and generally do better than players who adopt only one sport from the beginning. The author’s daughter Lucy sampled a half-dozen after-school projects before settling on the viola, at which she achieved success as a member of orchestras.

Experts practice their skills not by rote but deliberately: “they set a stretch goal, zeroing in on just one narrow aspect of their overall performance” (121), and focus on improving weaknesses. A stretch goal is demanding, and it’s natural to feel some frustration while trying to achieve it. This is a sign not of failure but of progress, since mistakes are part of the process of learning new skills.