Is it ‘a drag’ that passions don’t come to us all at once, as epiphanies, without the need to actively develop them?
ANGELA DUCKWORTHIf 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.
More Angela Duckworth Quotes
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Why do some people try, try again, and why do some people not? That’s what I’m after.
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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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Grit may carry risk because it’s about putting all your eggs in one basket, to some extent.
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I worked hard when I was a consultant. I worked hard when I was in graduate school looking at neuroscience.
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Psychologists call this the maturity principle. My own life experience fits this principle to a T.
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Some of the things we do are great, but they often have these iterations that are not great. We screw up sometimes. We get rejected.
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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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Most teachers, when surveyed, say that it is part of their job to help students develop things like grit. This is especially true at the elementary and middle school levels. They feel it’s part of their vocation to teach other things that are not formally academic content.
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Nobody gets to be good at something without effort, no matter what your aptitude is.
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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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I didn’t tell my kids, ‘You have to play viola, and you have to play piano.’ They chose these things on their own, and I don’t think we have to give kids every choice, but we do have to give them some choice because that autonomy is crucial for fostering passion.
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Longitudinal studies following thousands of people across time have shown that most people only begin to gravitate toward certain vocational interests, and away from others, around middle school.
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I think the questions on the grit scale about not letting setbacks disappoint you, finishing what you begin, doing things with focus, I think that those are things I would aspire to or hope for for all our children.
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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’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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