Taniya Singh
Perseverance and Passion
According to Angela Duckworth (2007) grit is “Perseverance and passion for long term goals”. In psychology the concept of grit is described as the firmness to fulfil a long-term goal despite any hardships or obstacles. A gritty person is more passionate and work with great efforts and determination in facing the challenges to achieve their goal.
They maintain their efforts and passion over months or years in spite of failure and austerities. The individuals high on grit maintains their inflexibility and incitement over long periods despite occurrences with miscarriage and misfortune.
A gritty person’s major strength is their stamina all through their journey to outreach the goal. In case of a gritty person the chances of backing off from the goal is impossible. Despondency and aversion do not make a gritty person give up on their goal.
The combination of two main factors which make a person gritty are passion and perseverance.
- Passion refers to a strong motivation mixed with potent emotions. It is a feeling of extreme fervor towards fulfilling a long-term goal. It is a long-term interest or dedication of a person for a goal no matter what obstacle comes in their way. It helps a person to continue engaging in the activity to attain their goal.
It motivates individuals to become the best they can. Being truly passionate about something will more likely to bring people towards success. Indeed, people feel good and experience positive while engaging in an activity that they deeply love and value.
They may also feel more pleasure and meaning in their life than people who are not passionate about anything in their life. In that case, individuals should experience higher levels of well-being if they have more passion about an activity than those individuals who does not have passion in their life.
2. Likewise, passion, perseverance is an equal and important factor for achieving a long-term goal. It is the determination of working hard regardless of any odds or obstacles that may exist. It is to remain persist and firm on succeeding in their goals by not giving up. It enhances the goal’s value for a person and intensifies their motivation level. Persevering long enough makes a person achieve their true potential.
To have grit means the person has courage and show the strength of their character. The valuable lessons an individual gets from his or her defeat is much more understood by gritty people and that the vulnerability of perseverance is requisite for high achievement.
They embrace their fears and have confidence in themselves and allows them to adapt to new experiences and continuously learn from their mistakes. In Duckworth’s book “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”, she outlines four characteristics that gritty people share. They are:
1. INTEREST: Success requires being deeply interested in what they are working on. There may be part of the work that they do not love, but the overall activity should excite them.
2. PRACTICE: Without any efforts, initial talent will never develop into something fruitful. By diligent practice gritty individuals improve their shortcomings by repeatedly working on it.
3. PURPOSE: Purpose makes a person work to achieve their long-term goal and keep them on track. It gives them a meaning for the constant effort.
4. HOPE: The belief that one’s dreams are within reach may be the most important piece of the puzzle. Hope is there in every stage a person goes through and it is the hope that gets them to success.
The determining power of grit in related to an individual success or achievement is more powerful than an individual’s grades, credentials or professional pedigree.
All companies have a constant goal: they want to accomplish a definite target. They cannot achieve this through lusterless or apathetic employees. These employees are easily discouraged by setbacks, which forces them to give up their action plan.
Due to this reason, companies encourage gritty employees. It is generally accepted that employees with grit have the determination necessary to think ‘outside the box’ and solve relevant problems. It is also seen that the employees with grit are more confident and pushed through their setbacks.
They are also more understandable regarding what work is worth focusing on without wasting much time. They also tend to learn from their past mistakes and work towards not repeating it again in the work. They are not scared of any challenge and whole heartedly face them.
A gritty individual can deal with failures in a healthy way. They are not pessimistic in nature. Hence, grit is a growing factor which is closely related to age (Duckworth, 2016b). As age increases the grit in an individual also increases. Socially, income of an individual is seen as his/her success in life therefore grit is related to an individual’s success in a big way.
