No, no, not love. A lil’ mustard seed all Americans are born with called ‘grit,’ and are called on to grow and tone, and blossom in success. I got an email with a link to this article, “The Truth About Grit,” that introduces the importance of hard work with Isaac Newton’s story; he didn’t just discover gravity because of his intelligence. It took decades of work to map out his new theory scientifically and explain it to the people. A new school of scientists are attempting to track the traits of intelligence, talent and grit, and their relation to lifetime achievement. “Grit isn’t simply about the willingness to work hard. Instead, it’s about setting a specific long-term goal and doing whatever it takes until the goal has been reached.” An acre of diamonds lies in our own backyard…if you commit to digging them up on a rigorous schedule every day.The timing on this article really sucks.
The article ends, “Woody Allen once remarked that “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Duckworth points out that it’s not enough to just show up; one must show up again and again and again. Sometimes it isn’t easy or fun to keep showing up. Success, however, requires nothing less. That’s why it takes grit.”
One of the comments on the post reads, “I didn’t have the grit to finish this article.”
The biggest example of grit that comes to mind right now is from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. A father and son walk miles and miles in post-apocalyptic America, scavenging for food and scrambling away from predatory humans just to keep surviving in a dead country. Their long-term goal is to stay alive, and they work really hard to do so… but for what?
Matthew 6:25
For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
COMMENTS
5 responses to “The Trait That Trumps Intelligence”
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Caroline-
What an amazing post! Just incredible. "Grit"… I'll never use that word again!
great post caroline
I agree with DZ and R-J. Truly great post and something worth thinking about. It's amazing to me when I think about this concept that so much advertising and colloquial language is geared toward this "Grit" concept.
"Be all you can be"
"Just do it"
"God helps those who help themselves"
"Do your part and God will do the rest"
This post also causes me to think of those things I can do–because I just can ("things below"; gifts, abilities)–v. the things that I just can't do no matter how hard I try put my "elbow grease" to ("things above").
Nice one C!
Good thought! I can't tell you how many "professional development" seminars that I have been to where the speaker is asked, "How did you become soo successful?" or "How can I be successful like you?" and the answer (everytime!) is to work harder than everybody else!!
It may be true that occassionally that some people achieve success through everlasting effort, but most of the time success is not directly correlated with ones effort.
Regarding ones faith, it is always the instinct of someone who is "successful" to apply the lessons of their career (grit) to their faith, which is the exact opposite of the Christian promise that whoever looses their life will find it.