Learning About Grit

Recently I completed reading my first book in a very long time and by very long time I mean YEARS. I set the simple goal for myself in hopes that I would finally do it, and let me just say it was well worth it. For one, I'm proud of myself for following through but two, I did a lot of reflection and looking ahead at how to personally develop myself into who I want to be in the future.

I chose to read "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth, and honestly I don't think I understood what the word meant till now. As I continue on my self enlightenment journey of book reading, I did want to keep myself accountable to the lessons and learnings by summarizing the key takeaways I left with.

1. I'm in between the 40 - 50 percentile when it comes my Grit Score of a 3.6, and that's surprisingly lower than I thought I would be. I figured that my ability to work hard would translate to grit, yet somehow I can see how my passion and perseverance can go through a lot of ebbs and flows causing that lower score. I don't hold my goals steadily over time, I struggle to complete and achieve the ones I personally set but not the ones others set for me.

2. In order to grow my grit, I'm going to need to put an action plan together. Right now, I don't have an ultimate or top level goal that I resonate with and I'm trying to identify what that could be. If I'm able to determine what that is and consistently work towards it over a LONG period of time, I'll be able to map out those smaller goals much better. Where I can't seem to fit is what I'm passionate about, whether for my career or for my family or for myself. I think I'm on a path of figuring that out at the moment.

3. In the meantime, I've picked up what Angela calls a Hard Thing Rule. You choose an interest and work on it until it is accomplished according to a certain time frame and the hard thing requires daily deliberate practice. Right now, I've committed myself to learning UX design, something I've been thinking about constantly as it's more of a creative outlet than by typical day-to-day responsibilities. I've joined Coursera and I'm working towards earning a certificate and building out a portfolio. Once I've completed it, I intend to reach out to small businesses where I can and start offering my services and expertise for free in return for practice. I'm hoping this will help me cultivate my grit even further.

4. Finally, I want to make sure grit is engrained into my life from here on out whether that be through parenting, my relationships, or where I plan to grow my career. I need more help from the outside in, I need amazing mentors who are willing to teach and spend time with me. I need to surround myself with people who have a similar growth mindset and understand how to translate that passion I see in them onto myself.

There's a lot more to grit than I threw in this random stream of consciousness of a blog post, and I hope I can bring more of the key insights into my thoughts and future blogs. While I'm at it, I'm currently reading my next book - Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. We'll see how this one goes! Signing off with yet another cute photo of Kaylee. 6 more weeks until the next little girl arrives!