Do you have GRIT? book summary

Paul G Stoltz, Ph.D. wrote a book titled GRIT, The New Science of What it Takes to Succeed.  In his book Paul outlines what it takes and what it means to be gritty and make things happen for yourself.  Paul and his team developed an assessment that measures your GRIT tolerance and ability.  In my typical quasi book summary slash notes approach, I attempt to give you my main takeaways of the book.  My hope is that in this brief summary of this book it inspires YOU to take action.

So what is GRIT:

G rowth: Your propensity to seek and consider new ideas, additional alternatives, different approaches, and fresh perspectives.

Growth is a mindset.  Mindset and attitude are often used interchangeably, when in fact mindset is much more.  Mindset goes deeper than attitude.  The definition of mindset the author uses is: The Lens which you see and navigate life.

R esilience: Your capacity to respond constructively and ideally make good use of all kinds of adversity.

Your ability to be “Response Able”: able to respond more effectively, to more things, more quickly.  The author and his team created an AQ (Adversity Quotient) Test.  This quotient is a measure of your ability and responsiveness to adversity.  Adversity is part of life.  How you respond to that adversity determines your success.

I nstinct: Your gut level capacity to pursue the right goals in the best and smartest ways.

What proportion of your energy, effort, hope, resources, and time has been and is being spent pursuing less than optimal goals, and in less than optimal ways.  How many of your goals would you say are absolutely optimal, meaning they could not be more right and more on target.  Your ability to use your gut and instinct to determine where you spend your time and energy is where you will show the best return and success.

T enacity: The degree to which you persist, commit to, stick with, and relentlessly go after whatever you choose to achieve.

Resilience without tenacity helps keep you whole, but it only goes so far. Tenacity propels you across the finish line. How many attempts, how many start and stops, how many heartfelt efforts over how much time does it take to break through and succeed?  The author through all of his research and study, gives but one answer, “One more.”

• Either adversity consumes you or you consume it.
• Theres a reason the word INTEGRITY contains the word GRIT.  People with Good GRIT strive for goals and objectives that prove to ultimately enrich or better others, and ideally themselves.
• DUMB GRIT: pursuing less than ideal goals with less than ideal strategies.

Are you a:

Quitter: Throw in the towel, give up on the tougher and potentially most gratifying pursuits in life.

Camper: (80 percent of people in our population): Reach a point in life where they say essentially “enough” or “good enough” and they settle in. They set up camp. Their energy goes largely into campground preservation, which can make them change and risk averse.

Climber: Only the climbers continue to learn, grow, strive, and evolve. Only the climbers stay fully alive until their final breath. Only the climbers sustain the GRIT to create and enjoy an optimal life.

Weak Grit: Doesnt mean you don’t set meaningful goals Weak GRIT simply means you lack the capacity to make the goals happen, especially in the face of frustrations, difficulties, setbacks, and delays, and especially as the path to making it happen requires greater effort and more time.

• Whats within you in stronger than whats in your way.
• If you decide that you’re only going to do the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table. — Jeff Bezos. 
• Intensity trumps time.  The more intensely you engage in this process of self-reflection, the more it will stick.  The science says that intensity of your focus and effort radically influences how much and how quickly you hardwire both lessons and habits. 

According to Dr. Jennifer Green at University of Technology, in Sydney, GRIT is the overriding personal characteristic of high achievers with a disability.  More generally, GRIT predicts ones ability to be gainfully employed and at what level.  It’s what propels organizations, teams, and individuals to outlast, outperform, and triumph over the competition.

• GRIT Matters
• GRIT Evolves
• GRIT Trumps
• GRIT Wins 
• GRIT Ignites
• GRIT Rules
• GRIT Transcends
• GRIT Sticks
• GRIT Grows

Please share with someone who could use some more GRIT, and I encourage you to be more gritty today.

To your success and your future.