#grit scale

Giving Myself the Gift of Done Part 1

I read Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff. It was on sale and I had a book credit, so why not? You know what? It was amazing! It really spoke to my kind of thinking. My review is a different post. I’m going over the notes here, doing the actions from the book.

Angela Duckworth Grit Scale “Get a score that reflects how passionate and persevering you see yourself to be.” Your Grit…

We have shared the idea of ‘grit’ in the past. The work of Angela Duckworth continues to be reviewed and applied across many situations. Duckworth’s research has demonstrated that grit is a better predictor of success in the workplace and the classroom and quite possibly the PCT, AT, CDT, or a walk around the block. For anyone who find themselves walking along the PCT they would likely feel that they are both in a workplace and a classroom so her research has some real application. Four recognized ideals of grit are resilience, a willingness to engage in deliberate practice, a passion and lastly a sense of purpose toward achieving a top-level goal. Doesn’t that sound like the qualities of many a PCT hiker? 

There appears to be a strong correlation between grit and happiness. Duckworth points out, “It doesn’t mean every gritty person is happy or every happy person is gritty, but it does mean that, on average, gritty people are happier and happier people are gritty.” Many a PCT hiker I have met reminds me of this in that they display a special satisfaction from doing something really well and loving it. Of course, grit is not some kind of drug that provides a euphoric sense of being that diminishes one’s reality. If you are freezing your butt off in an unseasonable snowfall or sitting in a wet sleeping bag on a soggy morning in a tent, or baking in the hot sun pursued by mosquitoes your personal grit will likely help you overcome those moments.I have seen this in others and experienced it myself on more than one occasion, leaving me feeling much better about my situation and my self than I ever thought possible. 

 Another piece of research that has emerged informs us that grit can be cultivated. Lauren Eskreis-Winkler’s research has led her to believe that human nature is much more malleable than people think. In fact, one way to  increase our own grittiness is by mentoring others. Encouraging them to be persistent and hang in there during challenging times actually strengthens your own grittiness by reminding you of lessons you may have otherwise forgotten. Duckworth says, “When we’re given the prompt of advising and encouraging someone else, we draw our attention to what we can do.” Could this be a subtle reason why some PCT’rs tend to join up and form into small bands of gritty hikers? The benefit of the collective both in experience and encouragement keeps us moving toward our goals. 

If you are interested in finding out how gritty you are, go to angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale and simply take the test. There really are no right or wrong answers, just answer honestly, considering how you compare to most people. Once finished, you will get a score that reflects how passionate and persevering you see yourself to be. 

Looks like Dr. Duckworth has updated her page, no doubt in advance of her book - “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” which JUST came out a few days ago (I’ll be reading it ASAP.

This link is an automated Grit Scale evaluation, which is really handy in this format.

Day 226 Record Keeping Day 194 Fixed Meditation (53 - 1:20) Day 140 Bodyweight Exercise  (2x8 burpees) Day 67 Writing = 63 Day 240 Eating = 66 Great sleep, great wakeup.

The Meta Danger Zone Lydia noticed that I was having particular trouble with my habits over the last few weeks if not a month. She postulated a meta danger zone - if individual habits have a quarter mark crises where the likelihood of quitting is high, then could the project as a whole have the same thing?

At first I dismissed this - my meta habit really is record keeping, and I do notice a correlation in not recording and not doing my other habits. But this doesn't actually address the skill of habit formation in general.

And this meta identity is something I've addressed before when I talked about Duckworth's Grit Scale. To me the Grit Scale really is a scale at how good you are at mastering long term projects - and in my mind it can be taking as a metric of habit forming ability as well. If the metric improves, then it seems to me the meta skill exists at least on some level.

If this is the case, it would suggest that forming habits itself is a skill - and all skills go through a shaky period - a plateau or a time with steps taken backwards - that is a precursor to mastery.

A few weeks ago I was randomly looking at the MacArthur "Genius" Grant winners and came across Dr. Angela Duckworth, who researches grit and self-control with regards to education. In watching her video on the MacArthur website she describes her research, which seems geared towards shifting the focus away from talent to grit with regards to how to measure success.

When she talked about grit, sparks went off in my head, and I thought that it might be the missing part of my equation with regards to habit formation - willpower over time.

However, after taking her 12 - point Grit Scale, I realized that there are some other issues - and I'm not quite so certain. 

The scale seems to focus on two things -the ability to overcome setbacks and the ability to stick with one thing for a long time. The latter is what I'd say is my missing ingredient - the endurance to continue a task until automaticity is reached.

The former seems, after watching her TED Talks video, to be a smattering of different things - from dealing with obstacles to putting yourself through the pain period to push past plateaus and achieve true mastery. 

And although this is very applicable for becoming the best in a field, it's not exactly what I'm thinking is needed for habituation.

On one hand, you can view grit as overcoming everything - the pain of willpower, the pain of endurance, the pain of really pushing past plateaus in learning.

But I'd like to view them as separate - when I choose to practice the violin today, I'm using Willpower to do so, which is a depleteable resource for that day. A few months in, and I'm struggling with a depletion of Endurance. And I can form a habit of practicing the violin at a certain time without actually mastering the instrument - which is usually caused by practicing easy sections and not putting myself through the painful trial of consistently pinpointing and practicing aspects of the art that are not perfect.

These three things act in different ways.

If Grit is some sort of combination of Endurance and overcoming, I want to know  - do the two act separately? What replenishes Grit? And how does it react - is it like Willpower? Can you train it?  

Right now her research seems very focused on identifying Grit - but to me this isn't very satisfying - it simply becomes and indicator for success - I want to know how to foster it.