Explanatory Essay Grit

Tisya Shah

Explanatory Essay

“The Key to Success? Grit”

Would you want your success to be controlled by random luck or your grit? In "The key to success? Grit”, a TED TALK, Angela Lee Duckworth talks about grit and how it’s so important to making one successful. She says "...One characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. It wasn't social intelligence, it wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ: It was grit. Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years; and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint."

One example of grit that I experienced was in gymnastics. In the 2015-2016 gymnastics season, I wanted to get a qualifying score to go to states and move up to the next level. Also, moving up to the next level and getting into states was important because I really wanted to learn more skills and become better at gymnastics. To add on, people can get qualifying scores at meets during the season. At the start of the season, my scores were low and I didn’t qualify. This motivated me to work harder in practice. As the year went on, I worked hard and used all the time I had for practicing. Specifically, my hard work and grit got me more skills like a kip on bars. To add, getting more skills gets people a higher score. Later in the season, I competed again and got three qualifying scores and got into states. I would have never made it without my grit. This example in my life really shows that grit is the key to success. In addition to grit connecting to personal experiences it connects to art as

A famous musician is Stevie Wonder. To add, he is a blind musician born in 1950. From a young age, he showed in interest in music and loved listening and playing it. He also, worked to improve his music skills and songwriting with his grit and he worked hard no matter his blind disadvantage. With Stevie Wonder's grit, he got his first hit single in 1963. Moreover, some of his famous songs were “I Just Called to say I love you” and “Ebony and Ivory”. This event shows the Stevie used grit or hard work and became a musician no matter the disadvantage. Grit was put into his many songs and because of that he become famous. He would have never became famous without his grit. Also, this event shows that grit is so important to becoming successful. Grit is connected to music as well as being connected to the world around