Are you screwed if you are not “talented” ?
To start with , GRIT is defined as Perseverance + Passion
We all are excited when we experience something new, however enthusiasm is common, endurance is rare.
Try this Warren buffet exercise :
1. Write down 25 of your career goals
2. Soul searing and circle 5 highest goal
3. Avoid the other 20 at all COST
Social multi-per effect: Vicious cycle of skill improvement
We develop the capacity of long term passion and perseverance when we get older. One key reason is life experience change our personality, first we change as we learn something we didn’t know before, also when we get older, we are thrown into new situations.
You learn to do what you need to do, necessity is the mother of adaption.
How can we grow grit ?
Ask our-self, WHY ??? why you are at where you are today , there are 4 paragon of grit : Interest / Practice / purpose / hope. Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, follow by a lots of development, and a life time if deepening.
Before fixing your passion and ready to spends hours a day to get skillful, we must fuck around to trigger interest. For beginners, novelty is anything hasn’t seen before, for expert, novelty is the nuance.
For practice, its either more time on task, or better time on task. Working to find your Achilles heel – specific aspect that need problem solving. Gritty people do more deliberate practice and experience more flow. Deliberate is form of doing, flow is in form of experiencing and they can co-exist.
Basic requirement for deliberate practice :
1. Clearly defined stretch goal
2. Full concentration and effort
3. Immediate / informative feedback
4. Repetition with reflection / refinement
We should make it a habit to do deliberate practice and change our way you experience it : GO ALL IN the moment without judgement (embarrassment, fear, shame).
Purposes : Normally we do more for others than we do for ourselves, the inertia to contribute to the well being of others.
Hope : There is a old Japanese saying, “fall seven, rise eight !”, the expectation that our own effort can improve our future, nothing to do with luck, just getting up again and again. It isn’t the suffering that lead to hopeless, but we cant control. A growth mindset led to optimistic self talk, and it keep our persistent and keep going. Ask for help if you need to.
Parenting for GRIT: We could teach our kid that persistence eventually deliver rewards, always endurance till the end. Follow through the extra-circular activities, that will be a predictable notable accomplishment.
GRIT for personal development : Many times the situation and the personal trait are “calling” each other. One of key reason is our personal trait bring us to certain situation and those situation trigger our personal trait.
Without directly experiencing the connection between effort and rewards, animals (which also human) , default is laziness.
There is a hard thing rule from the author:
- Has to do one hard thing
- You can quit…..until season over and not not a bad day
- You got to pick your hard thing.
GRIT Culture
If you want to be gritter, find a gritty culture and join, if you are leader, create a gritter culture. The drive to fit in, to conform to group, is powerful. When people make decision, there are 2 thing come into mind, 1. What is the cost / benefit 2. Who am I ? who will my identity do in this situation ? Sometimes cost/benefit doesn’t explain their choice, the logic of identity does. Think of yourself as someone who is able to overcome adversity. Even we have nothing to give, just keep one feet in front of another.
Lesson learnt by the author from Seattle Seahawker : Power of language : why not ! No negativity / Finish strong ! Play to win / compete !
Compete in Latin means “strike” together, not about others losing. Deep / Rich support and relentless challenge.
Finish strong : Consistently focus and doing our best at every moment, from start to finish.
In conclusion, to be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the others, to be gritty is to hold strong to an interesting / purposeful goal, is to invest day after weeks after years in challenging practice, to be gritty is to fall down seven times, rise eight !
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