How gritty are you?
Episode 16 of Part 1 of our Introduction series: Setting the stage for success.
Habits: Growth Mindset | Self-control
Skills: Persistence | Goals
Description: This episode introduces the concept of grit, as researched and defined by Angela Duckworth. We outline what grit is, and how it can help you to enjoy greater success in anything you're striving to achieve. We compare three approaches to achieving an example goal, and ask, how gritty are you?
Suggested student exercise
How Gritty Are You?
Ask students to answer the following questions as honestly as they can to get an idea of how gritty they are right now.
Note: Remember to mention that, no matter what your starting level of 'grit', you can improve it. And like a growth mindset, just knowing your level of grit is a good starting place for beginning to improve it.
For each of the following statements ask students to select a number from 0 to 10 to reflect how much like them each statement is. So a 0 means it's completely unlike you, and 10 means it's completely like you.
Once I set a goal I rarely (if ever) choose to pursue a different one.
New ideas and projects hardly ever distract me from previous ones.
I am mainly interested in my existing pursuits and am not interested in new ones.
My interests hardly change from year to year.
I have never been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.
I find it easy to maintain my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.
I have achieved a goal that took years of work.
I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge.
I finish whatever I begin.
Setbacks don't discourage me.
I am a hard worker.
I am diligent (constant in my effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent).
Calculating your Grit score
Your grit score is the average of each of the scores you've listed above. So to calculate your grit score, add up all your answers, and divide the total by 12.
If your grit score is high, then congratulations, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't keep working to improve this area. If your score is low, don't worry, there's plenty you can do to improve your grit score, and just watching the next two Passion Arena videos will be very helpful in giving you ways to improve it. If you find your friends or classmates are much higher than you, it's nothing to worry about because you can do something about it. Plus, you might have just been more honest than they were!
How this lesson might be applied in the classroom
This episode explains the concept of Grit as defined by Angela Duckworth, and outlines the key benefits of having a more perseverance and passion for long-term goals, or more grit!
Prompts for classroom discussion include:
Do you believe that having 'grit' can lead to greater success? Why/Why not?
Do you believe that 'grit' can be learned, and that you can increase your 'grit'? Why/Why not?
Can you think of an occasion or area of your life where you've been particularly gritty?
Do you think that other skills or characteristics also lead to success?
How do those skills and characteristics relate to having 'grit'?
What do you think 'grit' has in common with the 10,000 hour rule, perfect practice, setting goals or seeking support to help you achieve?
Why do you think passion is such a critical part of the definition for 'grit'?
Who do you know that is particularly gritty?
What is it about them that makes you think they're a gritty person?
Some specific discussion points
Discussion of any literary works, historical figures, or current events featuring prominent individuals offers an opportunity to discuss individuals who have demonstrated long-term passion and perseverance for their goals.
Some possible questions may include:
Thinking of someone who you believe to be very successful, do you think that they are a particularly gritty person? Why/Why not?
Are there any fields or areas of expertise where 'grit' wouldn't be valuable?
How do you think people become gritty?
What do you think you could do to have more 'grit'?
If the key to 'grit' is not giving up, what barriers do you think might get in your way and cause you to want to give up?
What could you do to help you get past these barriers?
Discussing the quote from this episode:
"Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them." — Vaibhav Shah
Possible areas of discussion may include:
Do you agree with this statement? Why/Why not?
What effect do you think not seeing the 'private sacrifices to reach them' has on our beliefs about success?
Do you think it would be easier to achieve success if we saw more of what it took to achieve it?
Why do you think we focus only the public glories rather than the effort to achieve?
How could you discover more about the work and effort that a successful person has done in order to achieve?
Further information on this topic
If you'd like to dive a bit deeper on this topic, you might be interested in watching:
Or you might like to read:
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
by Angela Duckworth, 2016.
Please let us know how we could improve this episode?
We're always keen to hear how our work can be improved. If you can think of anything we can do to improve either the delivery of our content, the content itself, the exercises, or our guides to how the lesson can be applied in the classroom, please let us know.