Introduction to Grit: What is Grit?
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when
you hear the word grit? Is it the lion that stalks it prey for hours in the
blistering heat of sub-Saharan Africa, patient yet persistent, as it awaits the
perfect time to strike? Is it a student who studies for hours day after day and
sometimes into the night in order to understand a single concept? Maybe it's
the athlete who gets up at 5am every morning and goes for a run in the dim glow
of the breaking dawn, rain, wind, or calm, in pursuit of her fitness goals. All
of these are examples of grit according to Angela Duckworth who simply defines
grit on her website as passion and perseverance for long term goals.
As we read this book, Duckworth will walk us through
in detail what exactly grit is (and isn't) and discuss the ways that we can
become grittier in pursuit of the various goals we have in fitness and in life.
We'll go through examples backed by research for how and why this particular
trait is so important and common among people that we as a society have deemed
successful. We will further gain tools such as Duckworth's grit scale to help
us reflect on our lives and examine the practical changes that we can make to
achieve our goals through the lens of this particular quality. I chose this
book because I think that it will not only inspire us as we come into the new
year with new ambitions and aspirations but give us some real-world tools to get
after those new year's resolutions.
Discussion Questions
1. How
would you define grit? What would you add to Duckworth's basic definition?
2. Who
or what comes to mind when you think of grit?
3. What
goals are you looking forward to tackling this year and how will you be gritty
in your approach to reaching them?