Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance [ Book Summary ]

Grit

Are you also one of those people who leave work midway? Do you keep straying from your ultimate goal? Does your motivation level change frequently and due to this you are not able to achieve your goal? If the answers to all these questions are yes, then this summary is going to be very useful for you.

Today we are going to talk about a wonderful and inspiring book called Grit written by Angela Duckworth. Patience means the courage to keep doing something continuously. All the achievers have a lot of Grit in them. They are never satisfied and constantly keep perfecting their work.

They want to achieve their goal in life at any cost and because of this, they have incredible powers and strength to conquer pain, suffering, failure and frustration. It is a combination of passion and persistence. The author discusses how effort is often ignored, and underestimated in comparison to "talent", when in reality, what is important in life is trying.

Angela Duckworth started her career as a management consultant, but after a few years, she left her job to become a math teacher in New York City. After years of teaching young students, he became interested in how effort plays a role in success.

Following his quest, he pursued PhD in psychology. Duckworth is currently a university professor, a TED speaker, and the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a non-profit organization committed to the science of character development.

Now is the time to understand the 7 most important lessons of this book in detail. So let's start again:

Table of Contents

what is grit

talent vs skill

target

Are You Born With Grit?

How to Incorporate Grit

Grit and school

patience and culture

key takeaways

What is Grit ?

Grit

The author explains the concept of Grit in terms of persistence, she believes that only your persistence will lead you to great achievement. A person who is a high achiever does not know whether he will reach his goal or not, he just keeps trying harder.

Those people are the opposite of self-satisfaction, always dissatisfied. But in a strange way, being satisfied and constantly chasing more is also satisfying for them. Someone who has true grit goes beyond pain and frustration, giving up is not an option for them.

A combination of passion and persistence is what makes high achievers special. High achievers have grit.

Society places a lot of emphasis on talent, which is a natural ability. Talent is always seen as a hero, and that only good results come from talent. What about effort? When it comes to results, isn't the effort equally important?

If you don't try, you won't get anywhere. It seems that when anyone achieves something worth writing about, we are quick to jump to the conclusion that the person is "extraordinarily" talented. If we focus too much on talent, we underestimate everything else.

One of the many reasons we emphasize talent is because we want to believe that high achievers are doing something physically that we cannot. that an olympic swimmer is found with a natural talent that no one can ever match, this is obviously to ignore the countless training sessions that an olympic swimmer goes through in the pool every day for many years .

We prefer not to feel slighted ourselves and associate high achievers with a mystique. The idea that people have some magical skill is more appealing than the idea that we ourselves are average and not putting in the effort. Having this magical skill is taken to mean that we cannot play in their league, there is no reason to compare them.

The author explains the formula of talent: Talent is how quickly your skill develops when you put in your time and effort. And achievement is the result of your developed skills, which you have used for the right work.

We should also not overlook opportunity as a contributing factor, for example, having a dedicated coach or teacher, and having the opportunity to practice, will be to your advantage. And in some cases, these opportunities are more important than anything else.

The author explains that his formula and theory do not include external factors, such as luck. It is only focusing on the psychology of achievement, and even though it may not give you the full picture, it is important to pay attention to it as well. Talent, how quickly we improve our skills, it absolutely matters. But the factor of effort is that it is counted twice in the calculation, not once. Effort builds skill. At the same time, effort also makes the skill productive.

To understand the principles of talent or effort, a useful example is exercise and fitness. People buy exercise equipment, such as a treadmill, weights or new running shoes. These purchases are made with very good intentions, but research shows that 40% of people end up using their purchases much less than they first thought.

Fitness depends on how much we workout, but many times it is not an issue, the problem is, we skip the workout altogether. As any coach or athlete will tell you, consistent effort over a long period of time is everything. How many times people start and they give up completely.

How many treadmills are eating the dust lying in the basement. Quitting is easy, and most people quit early in the process. A person who is really gritty will put in all their effort in a day, but that's not the important part, the key factor in being gritty is getting up every morning and continuing to give your maximum effort, no excuses. .

A person who is twice as talented but does half the hard work may still reach the same skill level as someone else, but will be much less productive over time.

Anyone who works hard will keep improving his skills continuously, and along with this he will use his skills, he will practice them daily. If a hard worker works harder than a person with natural skill, he will eventually reach a higher standard in his field. And it is because of their effort, they never stop.

Talent vs Skill

Talent does not mean skill, although many people believe that both are the same. Talent is a natural ability whereas skill comes from practicing and developing a skill for many hours. The time spent on skill proves to be much more useful than the time spent on talent.

However, it is important to realise, skill does not mean achievement. Without effort, skill has no meaning, it becomes something that you don't do, you have potential. With effort, talent becomes skill, and with this, effort makes skill productive.

Grit in Hindi [ Target]

Inside Goal, there is a hierarchy. If you look at the very bottom level of your goal hierarchy, you'll see your short term list of to-do's, things you want to accomplish in a day, often small tasks. The lower level of your goal hierarchy serves to move you toward the larger goal.

The higher you go up in your goal hierarchy, the more goals are automatically fulfilled. Whenever you're visualizing your hierarchy, use your higher-end goals as a compass, which will help guide your lower goals to their destination.

One component of grit is having a top-level goal, for a long time. This goal becomes so critical to your life, that it controls everything that you do in your life. A Gritty person is one who has a top level goal, and all other goals are linked to the bigger goal.

All of them should be designed in such a way that they can take you to the final destination. A person without patience has many goals, which do not have any clear connection among themselves. That's why decide your top level goal, and talk them into many small level goals. As you achieve smaller level goals, you will approach the top level goal.

Are You Born With Grit?

One question you all might be wondering is, are we all born with Grit? Is it just part of us, or something we can learn from?

There is no clear answer to this, and if you have to give a quick answer, you can say that you are born with it to some extent. Digging a little deeper, some patience is related to genetics and the rest is a result of experience.

There are 4 main qualities of a Gritty person:

A Gritty person should have an interest and passion. They should enjoy what they do and they should be committed to their passion, to dedicate their time everyday to their interest. A Gritty person will also understand that interest will not be created overnight, sometimes you have to be patient and wait until your interest develops and matures.

The second feature is the ability to practice. One who has grit will dedicate himself to practice every day, always striving to be better than before.

Having a purpose acts as the driver behind passion. A person with grit understands their purpose and why they do what they do.

Finally, hope. A Gritty person must have hope, which is an important element of perseverance. One form of perseverance is maintaining the daily discipline of doing better today than yesterday.

How to Incorporate Grit

To be successful in life, a child needs love, limits and latitude. A child who is constantly supported, respected by all and held to high standards, is given the ability to reach his full potential.

Parents who know this are doing authoritative parenting or wise parenting. Instead of relying on the power of being a parent, they use their own wisdom when it comes to parenting, with the expectation that their child will emulate them and become successful.

Grit Summary

Children, especially young children, are following their parents almost blindly. We learn from a young age what our parents do, how they talk and act. We don't have anything, towards which we can look, so we start copying them. There is a huge difference between copying and imitating.

The more we grow up, the more we are able to judge the actions and behavior of our parents and other people. So if we decide to take action and copy a certain behavior or action, it is with a better understanding, rather than blindly following.

While studying grit, the author met a lot of gritty people who attribute their success to their parents, whom they look up to as role models and admire them deeply. In most cases, their passions and interests align with those of their parents. Gritty people do not directly start copying their parents, instead they emulate their work and theirs.

Your parents may be supportive, authoritative, and intelligent, but they themselves may not be Gritty. Without expressing and applying a long term goal, passion and strong persistence, parents are not instilling patience in children. As a parent, if you want to raise kids Gritty, you must first identify your passion, goals, and ability to persevere.

Do you stick to your goals and stick with them come what may? Are you setting this standard for your children? Or you have loose goals filled, which you often completely stop following. When raising a Gritty kid, you have to be Gritty yourself. You cannot teach anyone what you do not do yourself.

Grit and school

For some children, school can be difficult and even uninteresting. Kids may find it interesting to play with their friends during lunch time, but it doesn't have to be difficult. Research clearly identifies those children who, apart from their regular school activities, are also involved in other activities and do better overall.

It can also benefit their school marks, their confidence, commitment and their abilities. Children can switch between their sports and activities. But to master an art, it takes many years of dedication for that art, many hours of practice, and on this the results are beneficial.

If you're a parent who wants to raise your kids to Gritty, the author recommends implementing the hard things rule. It is about giving your 100% commitment and giving it your all, for a specific amount of time. Every member of the family, including the parents, must each have a difficult thing to do.

Giving up is an option. When it comes to choosing a difficult item, it is important that the child chooses it himself. For younger children, a season or a year may be a necessary commitment length, but as the child reaches high school, it should be at least a 2-year rule. By yourself, you can cultivate your Grit from within. You can cultivate interest, develop a habit of daily practice and work with a purpose.

Patience and Culture

Grit Book

The culture in which we live, and with which we associate ourselves, gives powerful shape to all aspects of our being. Culture is defined as a group of people who share common values and norms. And based on this definition, it becomes clear that if you want to be as gritty as possible, you need to find a gritty culture. Surrounding yourself with people who are Gritty will only pay off in the long run.

Being part of the right culture or group is so important to your own personal growth, the people you surround yourself with can have a huge impact on who you are as a person. The culture of the group becomes your own culture and you become an integral part of it. Being gritty means falling down 7 times, and getting up again the eighth time.

key takeaways

Patience is a combination of passion and persistence.

Many times a lot of emphasis is given on talent, but if not much, then effort is equally important.

Talent means how quickly your skill develops when you put in the time and effort.

When you put your developed skills to good use, then achievements are the result of that.

It's easy to give up. A person who is truly Gritty will put in his or her best effort in a day, but that is not the important part, the key component in being Gritty is getting up everyday and putting in your maximum effort without any excuse.

A hard worker will continuously improve his skills and use those skills one after the other, and practice it daily.

Talent and skill are not equal. Talent is a natural ability, whereas skills come from hours of practice and skill development on something.

The time spent on skill is very heavy as compared to the time spent on talent.

The 4 characteristics of a Gritty person are passion, practice, ability to do, purpose and hope.

One component of having grit is, at long last, having a top level goal. This goal is very important for your life, and it starts controlling other things in life as well.

Gritty parents raise Gritty kids.