Grit: The Power Of Passion And Perseverance

Stairs. From the time you learned to crawl, this obstacle has presented a challenge to your everyday life. As an infant they seperated one world from another, and for many of us they will become a burden in our later years. Currently, many of us may view them as just a slight inconvenience to our daily routine. Like many other basic (things that help you) in life, stairs are just a means to an end. Yet, most of the quintessential qualities that are necessary to achieve these “ends” are on display in the interactions we have with stairs throughout life. Success is an ambiguous term that can have a variety of meanings depending on the situation it is presented in. For the majority of us, success is achieving a goal that was set by ourselves,

Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Duckworth (GRIT 57) has studied the psychology of success for almost her entire professional career and has noticed that for many high achievers passion is synonymous with following an idea with “consistency over time.” Duckworth (GRIT 148) later goes on to say that the highest achievers “see their ultimate aims as deeply connected to the world beyond themselves,” and that, “for most people, purpose is a tremendously powerful source of motivation.” Passion, and purpose give people the ability to focus on certain end goals, and allows them to continually work to achieve these goals, not just because they have to, but also because they want to. Passion can best be seen in use at Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) college preparatory schools. Dave Levin, the founder of KIPP, put the power of passion into the mission statement, which states, “Climb the Mountain to College.” This motto put a clear end goal for the students to work to consistently over time.The effects of this focus was seen in the graduates of the schools who did not only, “have outstanding academic results, but most of them also won admission to highly selective private and Catholic schools often with full

Lolly Daskal is the president and CEO of Lead From Within, which specializes in leadership and entrepreneurial leadership. Daskal (TOP 10) is fascinated with qualities that lead to success and she shares a major contributor to success when she states, “If you live your life as most people do, you will get what most people get. If you settle, you will get a settled life. If you give yourself your best, everyday, your best will give back to you.” Daskal hints that a major contributor to success is the ability to give your best every day even in the monotonous workings of life. The ability to persevere that Daskal describes is built in struggles, and then it is used within every goal a high achiever wishes to accomplish. One of the best examples of perseverance is in an anecdote from Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines. While discussing how Gaines was able to achieve this monumental accomplishment he states, “I swam around the world for a race that only lasted forty-nine seconds”(GRIT 132). Gaines is a perfect example of what Daskal describes as giving your best every day. Gaines was passionate about his end goal and exhibited perseverance when he worked deliberately each day and eventually swam what accumulated to the length of the world to achieve his dream. Perseverance brings success through enabling individuals to