Anthony Rizzo Introduction Paragraph

How would you feel if you were left alone in an Island? In the book “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen, Brian the main character. Brian is a 13-year-old boy who has been living alone on an island for several months that he needs to learn how to survive without depending on anyone else. Brian shows grit by being courageous, setting long-term goals, and being with resilience. First, Brian so shows grit by being courageous.

Various psychologists define grit in different various ways. According to Duckworth et al (2007), they define grit as the perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Scientists and researchers while integrating biographical writings of the world famous figures have derived the same conclusions on the individuals who are known to be high achievers in the world and the connections their achievement have to grit.

Angela Lee Duckworth defines grit as “passion and perseverance to pursue long term goals” (Duckworth and Winkler, True Grit). Grit is putting your mind towards a goal and not to give up, no matter what obstacle that stands in front of you. By becoming a gritty individual, a person gains courage within their self. Having courage, people manage fear of failure and being true within oneself to aim for things they would have never thought they could achieve. Grit is to aspire and succeed in ones future goals in college. Grit is to help maintain effort and interest over time, also to stay committed in spite of adversity. In Duckworth’s studies she showed how gritty people are more likely to become successful than talented people. In a study conducted

Duckworth explains people with grit are those who confront failure and don’t give up easily. She did research on the U.S Army to determine their grit. She realize, if the soldiers had a though of mind of grit they showed good results in their military performance on summer camp. Also, there was a fascinating research she had with taxi drivers relating to grit. Commonly, one would think that taxi drivers make more money in a rainy day. But what she found out was that taxi drivers work less hours in rainy days because they would make the sufficient money they needed for the day. In similarity, she compare this research to talent and grit. One with talent will spent less time on something so they stop immediately once they have proficient. In the other hand, someone with grit will spend longer time and get more out of it.

Grit, what is this? Is it success, is it failure, or is it talent? As Angela Duckworth said “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.” Grit is a combination of strength, persistence, focus, and dedication that helps a person to maintain the optimism and discipline needed to persevere in their goals even if they are head to head with failure. Grit does not depend on talent, IQ, or success. Grit is the ability to fail and learn from your mistake, in order to come back next

Throughout Grit, Angela Duckworth argues that grit is the single most important factor in determining success of an individual. She splits the argument into three parts: the concept of grit and why it matters, the proper use and understanding of the goal hierarchy, and how an individual can develop grit. Duckworth’s argument is important because it replaces the traditional viewpoint of success being determined by talent to one which sees success as a result of passion and perseverance.

Grit is sticking with your future, day in, 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.” (TED

Grit is a predictor of academic, professional, and personal success. Grit can be defined as strength of character or the ability to overcome failure and continue to work toward success. People with grit are not always the people with the most natural ability, but their work ethic and ability to overcome obstacles allows them to achieve success. Grit is a very valuable characteristic in almost any venture, as it gives someone an advantage in overcoming the inevitable obstacles they will face. However, grit is much easier adopted when an individual has a growth mindset.

My uncle promised he would buy me a real coconut if only I could say it right in English. I had not savored real coconut water in what seemed like years. Apparently, here in Yakima you could not simply stroll to the beach and grab one like in my hometown. In fact, there was no beach. But I had arrived to the United States only a week ago and I was already enrolled in kindergarten. I had to learn the language no matter what it took, so I studied. I gritted my teeth and sat down with a book and a mug-full of determination. After a whole lot of crying, learning, failing and more learning, I could finally not only say the word, but I was able to demand my coconut all in English. I accepted the challenge, set my focus on the goal, and did not stop until I succeeded. Many people say I am stubborn, and perhaps I am, but that coconut was the best delicacy I have ever enjoyed. Therefore, it is certain that it is not intelligence or luck but perseverance and grit that yields success and although my story is nothing like the compelling tale Charles Portis describes in his novel True Grit, they both express the true meaning of grit. In this novel, fourteen year old Mattie Ross and marshal Rooster Cogburn go on a life changing quest to find Tom Chaney, the murderer of Mattie’s father. The meaning of true grit is explored through Mattie Ross’s revenge seeking journey. Essentially, true grit refers to being strong-minded, determined, and unafraid of confronting difficult situations.

In one of the most watched Ted talk videos, “The Key To Success- Grit,” recorded in May 9 2013, the speaker Angela Lee Duckworth explains how the strongest performers in their fields were typically not the ones with the highest IQ’s, but the ones with the most amount of Grit. What is that? Angela defines Grit to be the passion and perseverance for a long-term goal and to go through with it with no quitting. She then goes on and talks about the studies and their results relating to pure Grit being the answer. Although her her speech is moving and brings hope to those who don’t think they can do much with a low IQ, her reasoning seems to not carry enough evidence.

Melba Beals was certainly full of grit. When she insisted to go back to school after segregationists were trying to keep her out the school, but she still insisted on going back to school to finish all her classes and take her final exams. Even after all those people told her to get out; and she finished high school with pride. When Melba showed her grit later on people started encouraging her more saying she’s doing a great thing for this town (Beals 224). I thought this anecdote was important because it shows an example of how grit is used in the right context. The journey archetype means a recurrent image, symbol, or even a situation that instinctual expressions man 's nature and experiences that are universal in humanity. While self-identity means the recognition of one 's potential and qualities of as an individual. People 's traits impact who they are as a person because if they have poorly traits they’ll show that in the way they act same thing for the good traits. Melba Beals’ “Warriors Don’t Cry,” “Homer’s “The Odyssey,” and my own life reveal that our characters traits have an impact on our life journeys and self identities.

I believe that of these three characteristics that I am strongest in the category of having grit. I have already defined what I believe grit to be and I think that sometimes it can be substituted for ones will to succeed. Grit has been a characteristic I have used to describe myself almost all of my life. I embrace grit because it is not a God given characteristic, and not everyone has it. I usually apply grit into my life once I set a goal for myself, I know that I set a goal for a reason and that I need to do everything in my power to achieve it and not let myself down. Grit has been portrayed in my life for instance my freshman year of high school. I played for my freshman football and the practice before our second game, I got tackled and broke my left collarbone. I had never broken a bone in my body up to that point in my life so I was not exactly sure how it felt to experience such a thing. I tried to finish practice the best I could incase the injury was not that serious so I could play in our game the next day. Once, I had found out that I officially broke my collarbone I still showed up to practice and lifting sessions every day to be with my team. I was told I would be out the remainder of the season but ten short weeks later due to my grit and determination, I was practicing with our varsity team preparing for

Have you ever set a long-term goal and were so determined to meet that goal no matter what happened? Angela Duckworth states, “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”. Sticking with a long-term goal, when you seem to have hit every bump in the road possible means that you contain grit. In class, we discussed how talent is inversely related to grit. Angela Duckworth did a study and made high school students take her grit test. In this test, she realized that the more grit that the student possessed, the higher chance that student would graduate.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives many different definitions defining the word “grit”. A definition that caught my attention was “unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger” .It gave me a personal reference as to reaching a goal, you have to be faced with challenges that you’ll need to conquer with grit being included. In Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED Talk, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” she claims that having students being pushed to the max is the only way to see the full extent of grit, and I agree with Duckworth. I was able to demonstrate grit on becoming a better basketball play after not making the team my sophomore year of high school. Ever since I was disappointed in my results of not making the team, I had told myself this wasn’t going to mean I was done playing basketball .I gave myself perseverance in knowing I could make it next year with motivation.

Grit is often used to view how successful a person will be because of their willingness to not quit on a task. A major supporter of grit is Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Duckworth had tested cadets of West Point Academy as they experience the “Beast”. The “Beast” is the first