In our PLG discussion on Tuesday, the terms grit and resilience came up. Are they interchangeable? What’s the difference between them? we wondered. When looking to the experts, here’s what we found: What is Grit?![]() According to Angela Duckworth, a researcher, a MacArthur Fellowship winner and with a TEDtalk with over 13 million views, grit is “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Duckworth’s research has evolved around discovering why some individuals accomplish more than other individuals despite having the same talent, intelligence, and resources. Grit is the motivational drive that keeps you on a difficult task over a sustained period of time. “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.” - Angela Duckworth How gritty are you?How is grit different from resilience?Resilience involves the ability to get back up when you’ve been knocked down or to come back fighting stronger after a loss. The subtle differentiating factor between these two deeply entwined character traits seems to be that resilience is the optimism to continue when you’ve experienced some failures and times are so tough that others see continuing as futile or impossible. Testing your Resilience Characteristics The 5 common topics which are explored in resilience questionnaires are: Self-Control: This concept in a resilience test measures your ability to make rational decisions, to suspend judgement, and to act rather than react to provocation. It also tests your ability to finish up boring and menial tasks. Adaptability: This is your ability to improvise, exhibit creativity and inventiveness. It highlights your flexibility based on your capacity to absorb feedback, separate the wheat from the chaff and make the best use of feedback. Optimism: Another key trait explored is your ability to maintain an informed positive outlook on issues. This includes your ability to find solutions and find ways of adapting to all different manners of situations with enthusiasm and passion. Self-Sufficiency: This is your ability to trust in your own talents and solutions. People who display a greater awareness of their innate gifting, and practice self acceptance, tend to be more self-sufficient and resilient. Persistence: The stick-to-it attitude counts a lot in how you fair in resiliency questionnaires. Most successful ventures tend to be the product of people who stuck to it long after others had quit. It’s the inner willingness to continue working on something even after the excitement has worn off. How Resilient are you? A Growth MindsetCarol Dweck’s work has shown that you can change your mindset. Her research found that when students had a growth mindset; a mindset which perceives a challenge as an opportunity to learn rather than an obstacle to overcome, they responded with constructive thoughts and their behaviour showed persistence rather than defeat. “How are we raising our children? Are we raising them for now instead of yet? Are we raising kids who are obsessed with getting As? Are we raising kids who don't know how to dream big dreams? Their biggest goal is getting the next A, or the next test score? And are they carrying this need for constant validation with them into their future lives? Maybe, because employers are coming to me and saying, "We have already raised a generation of young workers who can't get through the day without an award." - Carol Dweck So what can we do? How can we build that bridge to yet?From Dweck’s research into the growth mindset in regards to tenacity and its effects on achievement, especially in an educational setting, she discovered: 4 factors that affect ongoing tenacity or grit:
Below are 5 suggestions to increase your grit and resilience through developing a growth mindset. 1) Focus on Your Language Choice Praising efforts fosters resilience and reminds people of their role in a successful outcome. Too often young children are praised for “being smart” rather than having a good plan. Use language that encourages perseverance and praises effort. 2) Surround Yourself with People Who Persevere Surrounding yourself with people who have both passion and perseverance towards their goals, will help to strengthen or grow the mindset required to increase resilience and grit. 3) Adopt Flexible Thinking Patterns Being less rigid in your thoughts and actions allows resilience and grit to blossom. Simply because flexible people don’t see problems they see opportunities for growth and learning. When every challenge is met with enthusiasm and creative thinking you will see yourself as capable and this confidence breeds resilience. 4) Set Tiny Goals That Align with Your Purpose People with a sense of purpose are happier. However, your purpose is very abstract and often difficult to define. By creating smaller short term goals which align with your bigger purpose, you increase your success rate and your speed of accomplishing goals. This will keep you motivated to keep persevering. 5) Build Time into Your Day for Reflection When you take time to reflect, you bring awareness in a focused way to the things you have accomplished and the path you want to take to continue. Whether your reflection takes the form of meditation, a journaling session, talking with your Critical Friend, a gratitude exercise or a walk outside while you think back on your day, when you give yourself time to think back on your day in a non-judgemental way, you can see what you have accomplished and what actions you need to take tomorrow to keep moving forward. Take Home MessageGrit is our passion and perseverance towards reaching a long-term goal while resilience is the optimism to keep bouncing back from failure. Both of these traits for success are rooted in a growth mindset, and the good news is that a growth mindset means you can learn, develop and build your resilience and grit. Like most valuable skills, this will take practice and dedication. However, these efforts are well worth it because fostering these traits of a growth mindset will have positive impacts on every aspect of your life. ~Rowan Taigel References: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/5-ways-develop-grit-resilience/ https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/resiliency-questionnaire/ http://resiliencyquiz.com/index.shtml https://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/2121 https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve/transcript#t-209464
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