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At various points, in big ways and small, we get knocked down. If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.

Angela Duckworth

There’s something about taking the path of least resistance that makes a lot of sense. But at the same time, we have to figure out which things in life are worth struggling through.
ANGELA DUCKWORTH

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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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Really, what matters in the long run is sticking with things and working daily to get better at them.
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Most people who are really, enduringly interested in something eventually find that it’s important, too – and important to other people.
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I would be surprised if my girls ended up as women without grit. I really would.
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Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
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Being gritty doesn’t mean not showing pain or pretending everything is O.K. In fact, when you look at healthy and successful and giving people, they are extraordinarily meta-cognitive. They’re able to say things like, ‘Dude, I totally lost my temper this morning.’ That ability to reflect on yourself is signature to grit.
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It’s also stamina in your direction, stamina in your interests. If you are working on different things but all of them very hard, you’re not really going to get anywhere. You’ll never become an expert.
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Anyone Different Expert Hard Interest Stamina Them Thing Work
I’m not a policy oriented person. I’m constrained to what I study. But educational policy has not yet taken adequate note of the whole child. Kids are not just their IQ or standardized test scores. It matters whether or not they show up, how hard they work.
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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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Very few people can keep going their whole life doing something and feel like it’s merely personally fascinating.
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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 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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Striving is exhausting. Sometimes I do say things like, ‘I wish I were not quite this driven to be excellent.’ It’s not a comfortable life. It’s not relaxed. I’m not relaxed as a person. I mean, I’m not unhappy. But… it’s the opposite of being comfortable.
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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 haven’t been genetic studies on grit, but we often think that challenge is inherited but grit is learned. That’s not what science says. Science says grit comes from both nature and nurture.
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Challenge Genetic Girl Inherited Learn Science Studies

At various points, in big ways and small, we get knocked down. If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.

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At various points, in big ways and small, we get knocked down. If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.

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Popular Authors

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