Grit, by Angela Duckworth, felt in many ways like a summary/derivative of a lot of other things I’ve read in the past year. Overall, the book has a very powerful message: Those who achieve true success are gritty people, with a combination of passion and perseverance for what they do. It probably had the most similarities to So Good They Can’t Ignore You, by Cal Newport, which also talks about the importance of deliberate practice, passion and hard work in achieving true success. That might be why I found Grit slightly hard to get through – the message felt repetitive, particularly since I had also heard it elsewhere.
Like any of these books (one reviewer calls it “pop-psychology”), there is a lot to take away, both in terms of individual strategies as well as strategies for the family and workplace.
Grit is something that can be developed
This was my favorite message. Too often we like to believe that you either have “it” or you don’t. Well I have seen firsthand, through running, that grittiness can be developed. I don’t give up on runs like I would have done early on, and my commitment to running what I said I would has gotten much stronger since I started. It can be particularly easy for younger adults to be hard on themselves for their follow through and grit, but as Duckworth points out, grit is something that generally grows as we mature as adults. So there’s plenty of room for optimism.
Deliberate practice builds grit (and skill)
This is a concept I’ve heard elsewhere as well, but I liked Duckworth’s anecdotes about experts who purposefully put themselves into challenging practice situations: Rowdy Gaines, the swimmer, who challenged himself to swim laps faster than his coach asked him to, and Kerry Close, the National Spelling Bee winner who spells the most obscure words she can find.
Parents play a strong role in developing a child’s grit
Duckworth used the example of her own family here in a very effective way: at the beginning of each year, her family makes sure that everyone has a challenging activity that they are going to stick without throughout the year. It’s not a surprise, then, that her family has a culture of grittiness at it’s very core, with her daughters proud of any situations in which they stick with something challenging.
This one felt very relevant to me because I can remember how important it was to my Dad that I finish out each season of sports, even if I wasn’t enjoying it. I feel pretty strongly about follow through to this day, and I think a lot of that was driven by how I was raised.