07 [Grit: The power of passion and perseverance] by Angela Lee Duckworth

I first heard about the word “Grit” when during a dinner on a weekday’s night, a friend of mine said that she had not yet seen any grit in her second daughter who was in secondary school and she wondered how she could do to make her grittier. Then, she expanded the topic by saying more about the existing educational system and how the government was looking to teach the young generation who were the future pillars of society to be grittier in facing challenges. And all of these because of a book called “grit” that changed people’ thinking about the necessary conditions to succeed in life. I found that book in the library and then spent another two weeks listening to the 9hours plus audio book and I must admit that I learned many things from this book that I wanted to share some of them here.

We all face limits in our lives, not just in talent, but also in opportunity. But more often than we think, most of these limits are self-imposed. We try something but fail then we conclude that we have bumped our heads against the ceiling of possibility. Or we change direction because of the enormous obstacle right in front of us even though we are only after taking a few steps forward. In either case, we never venture as far as we might have and put in as much effort as we could. To be gritty is to invest, day after day and week after year, in challenging practice relentlessly and to be gritty is to fall down many times but each time to be able to stand up with great fortitude and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I don’t think I am a very gritty person based on the tests given in the book but I want to make myself a grittier person and thus better prepare myself for the possible changes that may happen in future, be it in my career or other aspects of my life. I always want to step out of my comfort zone but I don’t have a clear idea about how I am going to achieve that. Now, I have a better idea. I need to find out the real extent of my comfort zone then deliberately manufacture situations slightly outside of it. After that, try my best to overcome them through trial and error and through doing them repeatedly. By keep on pushing myself, the zone is more likely to get bigger and once an uncomfortable thing may become something that belongs to my comfort zone and I don’t feel reluctant to do it anymore. In order to do that, I must surround myself with people whom I want myself to be because by doing this, I tend to fall in line and following along what the people are doing.

A quote from Nietzsche: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” There are always setbacks in pursuit of something and we should not let setback to hold us back and discourage us from moving forward, even though we are in fear and trepidation. We must be positive enough to think nothing is impossible and no goal is beyond reach. The most important is we must give it a try!


I am going to use the ideas I learnt from this book and apply it in my daily life to see how big the difference that I can make.


**With ideas and lots of quotes from Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The power of passion and perseverance.




(577 Words)