I recently came across a Ted Talks video by Angela Lee Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who has done studies trying to figure out what is the single best predictor of success in students and adults other than IQ. She had noticed from her work as a seventh-grade math teacher that her strongest performers were not always the kids who had the highest IQ. She came to see that it wasn’t social intelligence, natural talent, good looks, or even high intelligence, like many might guess, but the quality of having grit that made all the difference.
Yes, grit.
Duckworth defines grit it as having passion, perseverance, and stamina. She says it’s looking at life and the future that you want as a marathon and not a sprint, and working really hard day in and day out to make that future look like the one you want.
Now, I may not know a lot about a lot of things, but I do know about grit.
Read more about how grit got me through college and how we can teach it to our kids here.