What Is Grit & Why Does It Matter?

Recently in my studies, we discussed a topic that has fascinated me: grit. What is it? Why is it important? Why does it matter if a kid has grit?

The interview above was so informative. It even features one of my favorite authors, Dr. Carol Dweck. Dweck is widely known for her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

In the video, we learn that researchers define grit as “self-control and the ability to regulate emotions and thought.” (Williams, 2012, 1:57) Why is this important to parents? Well

Angela Lee Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, teaches us that grit includes “effortful practice” and “deliberate practice” by children who were studied and found to achieve more than those who did not pursue effortful and deliberate practice. (Williams, 2012, 14:52) Why is this important to us as parents? Think about the child that practices an instrument day in and day out, despite complaining about not wanting to do it. Our son Joshua, for example, resisted taking piano lessons which his mother worked hard to pay for. After the initial struggles of him resisting, he found that he could win the affection of cute girls by playing songs that they liked. Boy, did his practice skyrocket after that! However, he stuck with the practice after his initial two lessons because he noticed that learning to play songs got easier as he put in the time to develop the coordination and the muscle memory to bang the keys out.

According to Dr. Dweck, those who demonstrate grit also possess a growth mindset and not a fixed one. (Williams, 2012, 35:31) We have seen this time and again as parents. Recently, I learned that I had been operating largely with a fixed mindset in my parenting as I was simply congratulating our children on the good grades and not on the process of how they worked to achieve them. Doing so sabotages their output and places pressure on them which disconnect them from the glory of effort and consistent work.

As stated earlier per Dr. Duckworth, the gritty child puts in effortful and deliberate practice despite not feeling the desire to continue. These children “practice on the edge of [their] abilities, [do] things [they] don’t yet know how to do, things that make [them] confused, things that make [them] anxious, that are frustrating and actually sometimes tedious.” (Williams, 2012, 13:12) Duckworth also projects that one of the “best predictor[s] of persistence” is the “putting all of [one’s] eggs in one basket.” (Williams, 2012, 40:56)

Dweck says, “In a dozen studies we’ve shown that praising intelligence or talent creates a fixed mindset, makes kids worried about taking on hard tasks, even if they learn from them, and sabotages resilience.” (Williams, 2012, 7:48) The fixed mindset has proven to make children non-learners who “in the face of difficulty…[are] not resilient.” (Williams, 2012, 8:08)