When I was growing up my parents always told me about the importance of hard work. They would tell me, “Max you have a lot of talent in sports, but if you want to be great you need to put in a lot of hard work.”. I have had many instances in my life when I relied solely on talent and intelligence and instances when I have used grit and a growth mindset. Grit is hard work and resilience. Growth mindset is that never giving up attitude. I can speak from experience that when I used my talent and intelligence I never achieved greatness. I was only middle of the pack and would most likely quit at what I was doing. When I used grit and a growth mindset, I wouldn’t want to quit, I would want to keep going and be successful. I was usually not middle of the pack when I did this. I was usually one of the best. Intelligence and talent will not make you successful, only grit and a growth mindset will help you be successful. I have always taken pride in myself that I am a hardworker. I don’t want to be the person who doesn’t work hard and doesn’t get the job done well. For example, when I played football in seventh grade, I showed grit and a growth mindset as well as hard work. I wanted to play football very badly, but my parents refused. I only weighed 80 lbs and they knew that it would be very hard for me. They eventually gave in and let me play. The first week of football practice is called Hell Week. It is a week dedicated to turning out of shape kids into fit
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.
In Chapter 9 of Grit, Angela Duckworth argues that a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, leads to more success. She shows that a growth mindset leads to a more optimistic outlook on failures, which further leads to perseverance and the ability to take on new challenges without giving up. Using additional research, I agree with Duckworth’s claim that a growth mindset makes an individual more successful because a growth mindset transforms obstacles into learning opportunities and fosters hope, which are essential skills to overcoming failures and becoming successful.
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.
Many successful people are born with special talents or skills. Specifically, talents are such as height, speed, strength, awareness, smartness, and many other abilities. Such as, Yao Ming. He was the tallest Chinese center to ever play basketball. He was born with that height, and put it into use. In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell finds analytics and found that the younger players were more selected than older in hockey. As it also goes with when you are born. You could have big hands like Odell Beckham, speed like Usain Bolt, or even be as smart as Einstein. However, some people may need to work hard in order to achieve their dreams.
In Beyond Grit, Cindra Kamphoff reveals the ten practices that the world’s best use to gain the high performance edge. Kamphoff shares the tools and strategies she’s taught executives, entrepreneurs, NFL ProBowl athletes, Olympians, college athletes, and championship teams. Based on almost twenty years of research and consulting with the world’s best, she provides a practical, inspiring, and easy-to-use guide to radically accelerating your performance and improving your happiness.
Bobby Knight, who was a respected basketball coach for Indiana University and was the winner of 902 division one college basketball games, once said, “The key is not the will to win… Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” Scientists have discovered that success is not based on I.Q. but rather inspired by inner strength. This inner strength is called grit. I also have referred to this inner strength of grit, for myself.
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.
First of all, I’m a hard worker and that is my first trait. I used this trait to earn a starting spot at my position tight end. By working hard I gained trust and respect from my coaches. This also helped me in games, where I worked hard to move the sticks. This would allow the coaches to call plays to me in sticky situation. All of this was gained by hard work.
There are many character traits that make someone successful in life. Some traits you are born with, other traits are mindsets. There are a few character traits that coaches, teachers, bosses, or any other significant figure looks for in particular. One of the most important character traits is a hard-working attitude. You aren’t born with a hard-working attitude. It is a mindset. You may not be the best employee, but an employer will be more willing to work with someone that works hard than someone that can do the job but is lazy. Although I am not the best at everything, I give 100% effort in everything that I do and believe that working hard is the most important trait a person can possess.
“Why we work” by Andrew Curry was very informational and resourceful. So it was not hard for me to agree with him about employees being stressed out and discontent with their jobs. Andrew gives multiple reasons to agree with him. Most of the reasons come from experience from my past and present jobs. Others reasons come from economy problems. I agree with Andrew because I to was stressed out and discontent at my past job Applebee's.
The first reason why talent is more important than hard work is people with naturally born talent at a skill will have the upper hand. People with natural talent don’t have to work as hard than other people giving them the upper hand on other people. People with naturally born talent at a skill don’t have to work as hard to get it or learn it than people who have to work harder than they do to get it or learn it. Certain things come easy to them which makes them better at a skill than someone else who has to work super hard at a skill.
As a child, I decided I wanted to try out for multiple sports. I desired to do everything, but was not necessarily created with the talent to do so. When I wouldn’t make teams, I felt discouraged in my ability. I could not even join the art club because I wasn’t talented enough. I was not good enough to play sports, or be artistic. As we have discussed in class, I had what is called a fixed mindset. Because I wasn’t good enough for something, I had already decided that I was not good enough for anything. Mindset explains the difference between what’s ideal and what people really experience. A fixed mindset keeps us from growing. Thus, a growth mindset provides people with the optimism to persevere to become better and achieve goals. In my early years, I believed that I would automatically fail at things like sports.
I am writing this essay due to the fact that I failed to show up on time to accountability formation at 0630 on 31July2012. I was informed the day prior of where my place of duty was and when I was suppose the be there. I knew that I had to be at troop no later than 0615 in summer IPFU for PT. I am aware that I agreed to the initial counseling that I was expected to be fifteen minutes prior to any formation. I failed the standards that were given to me by my first line. I am fully aware that time management is basic soldiering task. Failure of this basic soldiering task shows incompetence in discipline. This also shows to others in our troop that my leadership is not keeping
Work can cause many issues with oneself and society. There can be a inner struggle in someone if they don’t like their job. Society can cause the discussion of jobs to become a controversial topic. In the poems “Lady In The Pink Mustang” by Louise Erdrich, “The Restaurant Business” by James Tate, and “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs From Americans” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, the authors use divisions and conflicts to make readers see a bigger picture.