What is Grit?
People with grit are not born with it. It requires courage and is the result of life hard-fought struggle, a willingness to take risks, a strong sense of determination to pursue your desire, working relentlessly toward a goal, taking challenges as it comes and having the passion and perseverance to accomplish difficult things, even in most difficult circumstances.
Four Types of Grit
Guts - The first criteria of grit is to have the courage to take on a tough challenge and not falter in the face of adversity. Guts is what gives you the confidence to take on calculated risk, to be daring without being reckless and putting yourself out there, declaring your intention to triumph, even when victory appears to be nowhere in sight.
Resilience - You are able to stay focused and motivated no matter what kind of failures, obstacles and adversities get into your way. Some of the world's most notable high achievers have flunked or dropped out of school, been fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, or dealt with some other major setback that forced them to hit bottom. But they bounced back and became greater than before; Steve Jobs was a good example.
Initiative - This mean you have the ability to assess and initiate things independently. People in the leadership’s position are often judged by their ability to take the initiative.
Tenacity - This mean you have the relentless ability and will-power to stay focused on your goal. You can this trait in every athlete who overcomes a setback or a loss to win an Olympic medal or a championship ring. You can see it with every Nobel winner who has sweated through thousands of failed experiments and dead ends before making some groundbreaking discovery that has changed their field.
Talent Overrated
Do you know that talent is worthless unless you apply it consistently, in the right ways? Knowing you are talented without putting in the required hard work and sweat will end up nothing more than a great masterpiece unpainted, a scientific breakthrough undiscovered or an invention unrealized.
High IQ and Grit
People who are born with high IQ are used to working less to achieve a goal, because of this, many of them when confronted with very difficult tasks, will often gave up more quickly than those with lower IQ scores. The reason is because people with comparatively lower IQ score, in order to compensate, had developed a "grit" attitude toward problem solving.
Character
Unlike talent, our own character is shaped by our experiences, by exposure to other people and to the situations we encounter in life and our response to them. Character is something you can develop over time, regardless of income or education. It is the reason when an unwanted child raised in poverty, with shoes that never fit and adults, who never cared, grew into an inspirational role model for countless business people and entrepreneurs.
You Have Potential
Anyone can have the potential to turn themselves into world-class musicians, bestselling authors or professional athletes if they are able to draw upon their guts, resilience, initiative, and tenacity necessary to realize their potential.
What really is important here is that forming a never give up attitude will force you to overcome challenges and learn new things, proving to yourself that your abilities are not fixed and can be developed.
