Grit and self-control are related, but they’re not the same thing.
ANGELA DUCKWORTHGrittier students are more likely to earn their diplomas; grittier teachers are more effective in the classroom.
More Angela Duckworth Quotes
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Many, many individuals will report starting to form their lifelong interests around adolescence. Why that is, researchers don’t fully know. But if you can take a trip down memory lane and see what interested you, that’s at least a clue as to where your interest may begin to develop.
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Really, what matters in the long run is sticking with things and working daily to get better at them.
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Maybe. But the reality is that our early interests are fragile, vaguely defined, and in need of energetic, years-long cultivation and refinement.
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Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
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I now have Grit Scale scores from thousands of American adults. My data provide a snapshot of grit across adulthood.
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I was a good novice teacher, but I did the things that were obvious.
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I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my genes because I can’t do anything about them.
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Boredom is a very self-conscious emotion by definition. Interest is not. So you can actually be completely absorbed in something and, at certain points in your development, not even realize that you’re into it.
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I stayed for lunch for extra tutoring, gave kids my cell phone, and was available. In my first year of teaching,
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The parenting style that is good for grit is also the parenting style good for most other things: Be really, really demanding, and be very, very supportive.
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The words that we use I think are symbolic of the values that we hold.
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When people think of the word ‘drive,’ they often think you have it or you don’t, and that’s where we’re wrong.
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I do feel it’s hard to be modest and humble and egoless when people are telling you you are so great and wanting to give you prizes and energy. I’m trying hard not to be an awful, narcissistic human being.
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You cannot will yourself to be interested in something you’re not interested in. But you can actively discover and deepen your interest.
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Some people prefer a world where we’re all equally talented in everything. Whether you prefer that world or not, I don’t think that world exists.
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You know, the things that I want my own daughters to develop – the idea that we’re going to get there through rewards and punishments seems completely at odds with the idea of character itself.
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There are going to be peaks and valleys. You don’t want to let kids quit during a valley.
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I would be surprised if my girls ended up as women without grit. I really would.
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If the quality and quantity of continuous effort toward goals matters as much as I think it does, we may actually get more productive, not less, as we get older – even if we can’t pull all-nighters like we used to.
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There’s this really awesome theory of human motivation – that human beings all want three things. One is to be competent, one is to belong, and one is be free, as in to have choice: to not be told what to do but to choose what to do.
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I do think that whatever ambition I may have had natively was amplified by my father’s clear valuing of it. I knew that was what my dad really cared about.
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There are no shortcuts to true excellence.
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The most important thing parents can do, although it’s not the only thing they should do, is model the behavior they want from their kids.
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The focus on just thinking about standardized test scores as being synonymous with achievement for teenagers is ridiculous, right?
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If you are a young person who is wanting to develop a passion, you cannot expect anyone else to tell you what that passion would be.
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Negative feelings are typical of learning, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re stupid when you’re frustrated doing something. You might say to yourself, ‘I can’t do this,’ but you should say, ‘That’s great.’ That means you really have the potential to learn something there.
ANGELA DUCKWORTH