Often I carry books to read in the flight. But this Monday I did not have any book to read. And there was a 5 hour flight ahead of me. Browsing through the stores, I found this book – Grit. It was compact and encouraging.
I was thinking through challenges my son had to go through in preparing for his national math and geography competitions. At times he had a faster rate of picking up new information. Sometimes when faced with challenging problems, he had to slow down. I was his coach and I was also hitting some hard points about how to keep him motivated. I had to use a lot of patience and persistence. What kept me going and perhaps him too, was his passion. So when I saw that Grit advertising itself as the book that talks about The power of Passion and Perseverance, it was screaming at me to pick it up and read. I am glad I bought the book.
The author – Angela Duckworth – provides a lot of great examples to illustrate her theory. She even includes the tough points from her own life. She has an impressive background – education, pedigree, experiences, and research work. In my first reading, I had to come to appreciate Grit as her gift to the world. The book lays out the foundation for what it means to have Grit, the principal components being Passion and Perseverance. It makes the strong case (all psychology research books have to do this!) that Grit is nurture-ready. Hence we can learn about Grit and apply practice to grow our grit.
I was connecting to the “Growth Mindset” which had helped me in the past 5 years when I had to navigate some dead ends and challenges. Fortunately as they say “what does not kill you makes you stronger”. I feel stronger and energized again to apply my grit as well as to grow grit further. Perhaps I will be a better coach to my son in the coming year. He is determined to get into the top 10 spots in the nationals. That means I have to learn about all the bordering countries of the country that produces most pistachios in the world, for example. Ask me about that next year 🙂
Grit is an awesome book. I highly recommend it.
On arriving home, I saw Grit and Angela Duckworth were the featured headline article on the Costco Magazine. So the book is now at Costco too. No excuse for not getting this book and reading it. Then comes applying and growing grit. Good luck!
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