“Grit is sticking with your future day in, day out and not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years.” – Angela Duckworth
Grit is a word that’s often associated with sport. Elite athletes need grit to get to the top of their game, not only in terms of maintaining the focus and determination needed to keep going through years of training, but also in terms of giving it everything they’ve got when it matters most. But here’s the thing, grit is an attitude that revolves around a deep desire to be the best you can be, so grit can be applied to all aspects of life – including business.
Passion and Perseverance
Whatever your goals, it takes grit to achieve them. Grit can be defined as a dogged determination to succeed, but it’s not just determination in the short-term, it’s persevering and remaining committed to a goal that may take years to achieve.
Let’s face it, if you’re not passionate about achieving something or you don’t love whatever it is you do, you’re not going to stick with it, right? In her book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, author Dr Angela Duckworth names Jeff Bezos of Amazon as just one example of a gritty person in business. You see, grit is not about coming up with a great business plan, it’s about sticking to the plan and doing whatever it takes for as long as it takes to turn that plan and that goal into a reality.
Successful people are ambitious, and plans can span years. Getting from where you are to where you want to be in a year or in five years’ time is going to take passion, perseverance, determination, a willingness to keep learning and improving, bounce-back-ability from the inevitable setbacks and failures, and an unwavering belief that you can succeed.
It takes grit to keep putting in the effort required to do your best and be your best, but gritty people make every effort count in pursuit of their goal. Through her research, Angela Duckworth has identified five traits shared by gritty people:
- Courage
- Conscientiousness
- Ability to follow through on long-term goals
- Resilience (which encompasses confidence, optimism, and creativity)
- And pursuing excellence rather than chasing perfection.
Perhaps grit can be summed up by the proverbial saying about falling seven times and getting up eight. It’s going to take resilience to ride out the inevitable bumps in the road on any journey to success, but if you’re passionate about what you do and you believe in your ability to do it, you might just have the grit it takes to persevere and get there in the end.
Don MacNaughton is a High Performance Coach and has worked tirelessly to help clients achieve success in the world of sport and business over the past 15 years. To find out more about the latest courses and programmes please email donald@zonedinperformance.com