The Positive Power of Grit
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan
THAT'S GRIT.
One of the best books I have ever read is by Angela Duckworth, titled, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. She explains grit the following way: “Grit isn’t talent. Grit isn’t luck. Grit isn’t how intensely, for the moment, you want something. Instead, grit is about having what some researchers call an ”ultimate concern” –a goal you care about so much that it organizes and gives meaning to almost everything you do. And grit is holding steadfast to that goal. Even when you fall down.”
Last week I talked about the power of mistakes. Specifically, I talked about fostering the environment to celebrate mistakes, seek clarification, and accept feedback related to the mistakes. In her book, Duckworth discusses the power of thoughtful, respectful feedback coupled with high expectations. Through her research, she was able to identify that students persevered more, or showed more “grit” when receiving wise feedback.
Duckworth’s research has found that grit develops over the years in a particular order:
Interest: intrinsically enjoying what you do. As adults we all choose to do the things at which we feel successful. With children, we need to support their work in activities in which they are not successful, and help them find the activities they enjoy.
Practice: Duckworth explains practice as the “...daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday.” Practice should focus on areas of weakness and to resist being OK at activities, but always wanting to improve and set new goals.
Purpose: We all want to do things that matter. Again, as adults we have made choices to do things that interest us and give us a sense of purpose. How can we develop a purpose for children? We need to explain how the work matters to others and to themselves.
Hope: we need to keep going when things get difficult. If we give up, certainly we won’t reach our goals. One needs to believe that tomorrow will be better and one will do his/her best to make it better. There’s an old Japanese saying, “fall seven, rise eight”.
Bill McNabb, the former CEO of Vanguard, talks about the importance of growth mindset, the belief that basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work; perseverance. He is quoted as saying, “...when you have setbacks and failures, you can’t overreact to them. You need to step back, analyze them, and learn from them. And stay optimistic.”
I share this information with you to help you understand the foundation on which The Young Achievers Learning Academy is built. Honoring mistakes is a part of our learning process. We believe the learning process, illustrated in our logo at the bottom of this letter, is essential to working with our students. We believe it is our job to help develop grit.
Additional resources on grit: