Reading Charles Portis’s excellent little book, “True Grit,” you will likely be entertained. Personally, I did not find it to be as engrossing or enduring as Donna Tartt found it, but in writing about her passion for the book, Tartt offered a rousing description of a beloved book which applies to almost any favorite book. She explains:
Then there are the books we love so much that we read them every year or two, and know passages of them by heart; that cheer us when we are sick or sad and never fail to amuse us when we take them up at random; that we press on all our friends and acquaintances; and to which we return again and again with undimmed enthusiasm over the course of a lifetime. I think it goes without saying that most books that engage readers on this very high level are masterpieces; and this is why I believe that True Grit by Charles Portis is a masterpiece.
An unexpected story, “True Grit” lends itself to many interesting discussions of unique characters, their motivations, and, naturally, their grit. This begs the question:
What is Grit?
Enter researcher and professor of psychology, Angela Duckworth and her work to determine what makes successful people succeed. In reviewing the behavior and performance of high achievers in many different arenas, she found common themes. Duckworth explains in her book “Grit” that such high achievers were “usually resilient and hardworking.” That may not seem like much of a surprise.
There’s another piece of their success. Duckworth explains that “they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction.” According to Duckworth, “It was this combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit.”
Can You Learn to Have More Grit?
Of course, you can read Duckworth’s further musings on grit and learn about what they call at the University of Pennsylvania The Grit Lab. The academic model of identifying passion and developing perseverance is all well and good, but there is a practical application to consider. That is what the Grit Lab aims to do, but I wonder if the uninspiring setting of college classroom, so often sadly divorced from real-life experience for 18 to 22-year-olds with limited perspective, is the right place to think about grit.
When considering grit, there are probably specific people—whether in life or in fiction—who spring readily to mind. Motivated by different visions, these people are likely united in certain qualities of, for lack of a better descriptor, “stick-to-it-iveness.”
Some of this seems inherent to personality, as seen in the toddler who will not be deterred from experimenting with the light switch. While some children are content to sit placidly, others seem born with a strong sense of what they want to do (like feel the power of controlling the light switch!). In the classical temperaments, these qualities are identified with the choleric. This is often, at least in part, innate. And yet, spending time with decisive people can prompt us to become more decisive.
A couple quick thoughts on acquiring grit:
Cultivate Vision
Most of us will not consider accomplishing a feat that we have not seen someone else do. Stories are a way of broadening our horizons and considering other possibilities beyond what we see in our own corner of the world. Read stories to find vision.
Once we have a view of what is worth doing we have a reason—a passion, to use Duckworth’s word—to endure the discomfort of trying to attain it.
Tolerate Physical Discomfort
Mental fortitude seems perhaps necessarily preceded by physical discomfort. The connection of mind and body is such that the physically comfortable are rarely able to be mentally tough. In addition, the single-mindedness of working to achieve something envisioned requires delaying creature comforts of food, sleep, warmth, and security.
Where to begin? Reading an adventure story and taking a good, ol’ fashioned camping trip. More thoughts on grit to come. For now, we leave it there.
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