Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

by Angela Duckworth

His own two girls, he added worriedly, were growing up without a moment’s boredom. At the slightest twinge of ennui, they were able to find relief in one form of button pressing or another.

sit in a quiet room with nothing to do for several minutes. Participants generally found the experience difficult—to the point that they found mundane tasks to be far more enjoyable than doing nothing.

In fact, one in four young women and two out of three young men voluntarily administered electric shocks to themselves instead of sitting alone with their thoughts.

So, we have rules: Cell phones stay in the nook in the kitchen until everything that needs to get done gets done. No cell phones at meals. No cell phones when sitting in a restaurant with relatives or family friends, even if you’re bored out of your skull.

We all agree, and we sometimes say aloud, that these distractions are like heroin: addictive. We all recognize effortless entertainment is the enemy of long-term passion and perseverance.

And for those who become true paragons of grit, there will eventually be the singular satisfaction of loving what you do and continually working to get better at it.

My husband Jason and I are raising our girls according to the Hard Thing Rule: Do something that requires deliberate practice, don’t quit in the middle of the season or the semester, and pick the hard thing yourself.

Budding interests, you’ll recall from chapter 6, are sometimes more apparent to observers than the interested parties themselves.

Apparently, I’ve convinced Lucy that a hard thing can be fun, too.

Ask your kids to do something that will teach them, through experience, deliberate practice and resilience.

Why? Because the ultimate goal is to grow up to develop a calling—a fun thing that is also a hard thing.

A lot of factors determine success. Emotional intelligence. Physical talent. Intelligence. Conscientiousness. Self-control. Imagination. The list goes on.

For everyday functioning, my research suggests that grit isn’t as important as self-control in the face of distractions and temptations.

For making friends, emotional intelligence is prob...

When you look at the best of the best across domains, the combination of passion and perseverance sustained over the long term is a common denominator.

It’s often said that the last mile is the longest. Grit keeps you on the path.