The Grit to Go On - How Perseverance Can Help You Overcome Any Obstacle
Developing Resilience and Grit
So often many people view their challenges as failures, and they lose all motivation to go on with their endeavours. However, failure is actually success in progress. Learn how to thrive with failure and grow from your weaknesses to become resilient and ‘gritty’.
Many times the feeling of failure leads to a loss of motivation for any type of endeavour - relationships, career, fitness, diet, business, parenting, schooling, sports, etc. This is often because a lot of people have grown up with a fixed mindset. Carol Dweck, a psychologist and researcher defines a fixed mindset as a belief that one’s basic qualities such as their intelligence or talents are fixed. Therefore, one perceives themselves has having limited abilities rather than working towards developing them and growing stronger.
GROWTH MINDSET
In her research, Dweck also documents that when individuals fail at something, they tell themselves that they aren’t capable of ever
accomplishing that task
or they will make excuses to rationalize their behaviour. Alternatively those with a growth mindset view their failures as an opportunity to develop their skills and abilities. They have a desire to learn and a tendency to:
embrace challenges
persist in the face of obstacles
see effort as a path to mastery
learn from criticism
find lessons and inspiration in the success of others
The growth mindset builds a resilient attitude in individuals.
BECOMING RESILIENT
Resilience is the ability to cope with stress and to ‘bounce back’ from adversity in a positive, self-regulating manner. Harvard Health cites, ‘resilience is associated with longevity, lower rates of depression, and greater satisfaction with life. "There's a sense of control, and it helps people feel more positive in general.’ *
According to research by Susan Kobasa, a psychologist - she found that resiliency has three elements associated with it:
Challenge - failures and setbacks are viewed as learning opportunities for growth.
Commitment - goal-orientated and having a positive future vision of self.
Personal control - confident and focused on controllable situations and events rather worrying about things beyond one’s control. *
UNDERSTANDING GRIT
Much like resilience, grit is a trait that develops through experience. Angela Lee Duckworth, psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania led a study on grit and has found grit to be a common factor among the high-achievers she has studied. She defines grit as, “the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals” (Duckworth et al., 2007).
