Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

By Angela L. Duckworth. Harvard Educational Review, 2017

1,094 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Why do naturally talented people frequently fail to reach their potential while other far less gifted individuals go on to achieve amazing things? The secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a passionate persistence. In other words, grit. MacArthur Genius Award-winning psychologist Angela Duckworth shares fascinating new revelations about who succeeds in life and why. Based on her cutting-edge research, Duckworth shows how many people achieve remarkable things not just by relying on innate natural talent, but by practising what she calls grit. She then offers a Grit Formula to help anyone to become more gritty, focusing on six key factors: hope, effort, precision, passion, ritual and prioritisation. She reveals: why people who test high for talent often fail to achieve their potential, and why people who do not test high for talent often "overachieve" what others expect them to do; how grit can be learned, whatever your IQ or circumstances; why stubbornness is a key characteristic of gritty people; when to be stubborn and when giving up is the grittiest thing you can do; how gritty people found their passion, and you can find yours; how gritty experts practise, and how you can do the same in your own life; what the people who care about you can do to boost your grit when you need it most; and, how grit is cultivated in the highest-performing sports teams, companies and schools. Leaping past cliches such as 'success is all about hard work', Grit offers a fresh and motivating way to climb to heights far beyond what natural talent would predict.

Subfields: Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/04aaf2963556c0ac5cf0460066f22bfb26290c9f

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In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Passion, grit and mindset in young adults: Exploring the relationship and gender differences (2020, background): “Factors such as passion (Vallerand, 2010), grit (Duckworth, 2016), growth mindset (Dweck, 2017) and significant others such as a mentor, trainer and teacher (Ericsson et al., 2007).”
Entrepreneurial Passion: A Review, Synthesis, and Agenda for Future Research (2019, background): “To this end, researchers might draw upon the concept of grit defined by Duckworth (2016) as perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”
The role of grit and classroom enjoyment in EFL learners’ willingness to communicate (2020, positive): “More recently, due to positive social impacts of grit (Duckworth 2013, 2017), researchers have begun to apply this construct to diverse life contexts such as marriage, e-learning, school, entrepre-neurship, workplace sales, and the military (Aparicio, Bacao, and Oliveira 2017; Arco-Tirado et al.…”
Associations Between Grit, Motivation, and Achievement in High School Students (2017, background): “Duckworth and Quinn (2009), Study 4, found that grit predicted GPA in a sample of middle and high school students, controlling for age and hours spent watching TV. Eskreis-Winkler, Shulman, Beal, and Duckworth (2014), Study 3, found that grit, measured in Grade 11, predicted graduation from high sch”
Grit and conscientiousness: Another jangle fallacy (2020, methodology): “Over the last 10+ years grit has received much attention in research literature, popular press (e.g., Duckworth, 2016), and from educational policymakers.”
Perseverant grit and self-efficacy: Are both essential for children’s academic success? (2019, background): “Perseverance—one particular character strength identified by Seligman—became popularized as grit in recent work by Angela Duckworth and her colleagues (Duckworth, 2016).”