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Personal GROWTH

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Grit & Student SucceSS

WHAT IS GRIT?

People react differently to challenges, especially challenges that impact our goals. Some people succumb and eventually give up, while others persist and work through the challenge. There are many terms used to describe this resilience and determination. One of the popular terms used is grit.

Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals despite setbacks, failures, and competing pursuits (Eskreis-Winkler et al., 2016). Grit is about working on something you are so passionate about that you simply want to keep at it. Grit is relentless effort and focus.

You will undoubtedly face obstacles in your career and in life. Being challenged creates opportunities to increase your knowledge, resilience, and skills. You alone have ownership of how you will respond. Two key concepts that will empower you to take charge of challenges are Grit and a Growth Mindset.

W hat Is Grit?

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Psychologist Angela Duckworth, the leading expert on the concept of grit, describes grit as follows:

One way to think about grit is to consider what grit isn’t. 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. Even when you screw up. Even when progress is halting or slow (Duckworth, 2022).

Embracing the concept of grit can help to support personal growth and academic success. Research suggests that grit is a strong predictor of reaching challenging and personally meaningful goals (Duckworth, 2022).

GRIT IN ACTION Now that we understand what grit is, let’s explore what grit looks like in action. Please watch the LinkedIn Learning video: Focus and Grit.

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So, what about talent? If you have natural talent, do you still need grit? Talent and luck can contribute to success, but talent and luck do not guarantee success. The research suggests that grit is as important as talent and luck, if not more important. We know lots of people with natural talent who didn’t put in the effort to turn their talent into skills and success. Grit research says that our effort is often the determining factor between success and unmet potential.

ACHIEVEMENT EQUATION Angela Duckworth developed the equation below for finding achievement.

GRIT VS TALENT

If we were to use basic algebra to simplify these two equations, it would be: (Talent x Effort) x Effort = Achievement. When it comes to achievement, effort counts twice. Effort is twice as important as natural talent. Consistency of effort over the long run is the key!

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Click HERE to complete the Grit Scale, a brief assessment to learn your current grit score. If you find that your grit score is low, there is hope! There are ways to improve your grit or resilience, especially when it comes to personal growth and academic success.

HOW GRITTY ARE YOU?

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CAN YOU GROW YOUR GRIT? Yes! Duckworth (2016) suggests that there are four specific characteristics that the grittiest people have. These characteristics help them resist the urge to give up on their goals.

Interest – Explore things you are interested in to identify your passion. Passion starts with enjoying what we do. For most Los Angeles Film School students, their passion will be centered

around their career field. The goal is to develop your passion. When you are passionate about a goal, it is easier to resist quitting.

Practice – Developing your passion requires practice and helps to build perseverance. Successful people don’t just practice more often, they practice differently. They often zero in on their

weaknesses rather than what they do well, focusing on what can be improved. This process is called deliberate practice.

G row Your Grit

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Watch this TED Talk, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, to hear psychologist Angela Duckworth’s thoughts on Grit and its connection to Growth Mindset.

Purpose – In week 2, we talked about the motivating power of purpose. Purpose and grit are strongly connected. Duckworth’s research shows that grittier people are more motivated to identify

their purpose and live a meaningful life. Higher scores on a sense of purpose correlate with higher grit scores. Seeing your goals and passions as a part of your purpose helps to build your resilience.

Hope – Grit requires hope, and hope is all about perseverance. Hope is getting up again and again when we fall down and believing that our effort can improve our future. Hopeful people

look for temporary and specific causes to explain their failures, instead of permanent and pervasive causes.

For example, “I missed my deadline because I need to work on my time management” (there is hope for improvement) vs. “I missed my deadline because I’m just not good enough” (there is no hope for improvement). Hope is essential for a growth mindset, which can increase your grit because you believe you can learn and improve your skills.

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Personal growth begins with self-awareness, and the desire to learn and improve to reach our highest potential. Our mindset can be a determining factor in our personal growth. We should ask ourselves if we are approaching new things with an open mind. Are we looking at school projects or challenges from the perspective of “What can I learn from this?” or from an “I can’t do this” perspective? These two statements can set the tone for the mindset we have as a student and in our careers.

Research by psychologist Carol Dweck suggests that we have specific mindsets or beliefs about our abilities. These mindsets shape our behaviors and affect the way we lead our lives and approach our work. Your mindset can determine if you become the person you aspire to be, and if you commit to and accomplish the things you value (Dweck, 2016). The two different mindsets are known as the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

WHY DOES YOUR MINDSET MATTER?

Fixed vS Growth MindSet

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If you have a fixed mindset, you believe your talents and intelligence are unchangeable. You believe you have a certain amount of talent and intelligence and nothing can change that. You spend much of your time proving that you are smart or correct rather than learning from mistakes.

WHAT IS THE FIXED MINDSET?

If you have a growth mindset, you believe that you can develop and improve your abilities and intelligence through effort and hard work. Your current level of intelligence and talent are just a starting point. You have a passion for learning.

WHAT IS THE GROWTH MINDSET?

A fixed mindset often leads to anxiety and procrastination because of a fear of failure. This can lead to avoiding risks and challenges, which can be an avoidance of learning. This is the “I can’t do this” perspective.

Those with a growth mindset seek challenges, have lower anxiety, higher self-esteem, fewer avoidance behaviors, and experience more success.

“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset” (Dweck, 2016, p. 7). This is the “I can’t do this, yet” perspective. The growth mindset doesn’t stop there, as every experience is viewed as a learning opportunity and allows people to thrive.

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Not sure if you currently have a fixed or growth mindset? Click HERE to take a 16-question mindset assessment.

Keep in mind that your current way of thinking and responding to situations is not fixed. The first step in moving towards a growth mindset is recognizing that we have a choice in how we perceive each situation.

TEST YOUR MINDSET

Looking at each experience as a learning opportunity allows you to enjoy the process, rather than avoiding tasks. Learning to approach each new challenge with the mindset, “I can do this if I put in the work,” will help to keep you focused as you learn new skills.

It will help keep you motivated because you understand that it is supposed to be hard but with effort, you can continue to build your abilities. You can make the choice to take on challenges wholeheartedly, learn from your setbacks, make adjustments, and try again. With practice, we can elevate our mindset, talents, and achievements.

WHAT CAN I LEARN FROM THIS?

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Dweck (2016) suggests using these three strategies to practice moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

1. Be aware of the fixed mindset voice that lives inside all of us. Catch these negative beliefs and identify that this is the fixed mindset at work.

2. Practice changing your internal beliefs from a fixed mindset framework to a growth-oriented one. Using the examples in the chart provided below can help put the growth mindset ideas into practice.

HOW CAN I PRACTICE USING THE GROWTH MINDSET?

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3. Determine what actions will lead to growth and create a plan to move forward. This might include learning from feedback, accepting new challenges, creating a new goal, or making adjustments to an existing plan. Here are some questions that can help with deciding the necessary action.

• What can I learn from this? • What information do I need to gather? • What changes can I make? • What steps can I take to help me succeed?

It takes practice to put these strategies into action. However, we can make this thinking more dominant if we put in the effort to change our thinking (Dweck, 2016). We all struggle with the fixed mindset in different situations but we can choose to look at each situation with a different perspective by using the growth mindset. This will allow us to grow as a student, as well as create an appreciation for lifelong learning.

To learn more about cultivating a growth mindset, as well as strategies for creating a lifelong learning habit, please watch this LinkedIn Learning course: Cultivating a Growth Mindset.

P ractice Growth Mindset

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REFERENCES Duckworth, A. L . (2013, May 9). Grit : The power of passion and perseverance [Video]. TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_ grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit : The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner.

Duckworth, A. (2022). Grit Scale. Angela Duckworth. https:// angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/

Duckworth, A. (2022). FAQ. Angela Duckworth. https://angeladuckworth.com/ qa/

Duckworth, A. L ., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit : Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022- 3514.92.6.1087

Dweck, C. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books. The Impact of a growth mindset. (n.d.). Science Impact. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.mindsetworks.com/Science/ Impact

Eskreis-Winkler, L ., Gross, J. J., & Duckworth, A. L . (2016). Grit : Sustained self-regulation in the service of superordinate goals. In K . D. Vohs & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory and applications (3rd ed.), 380–395. Guilford.

Roberts, G. (2018). Cultivating a growth mindset (video). LinkedIn Learning. https://www.linkedin.com/learning/cultivating-a-growth-mindset/fixed- mixed-and-growth-mindsets?u=57690305.

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