Thread by @gretchemaben

So, I’ve been reading “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” and was thinking about doing a “book club” of sorts, for those of you who are interested in reading along, or simply learning some of the lessons I glean from the book. Please follow this thread and grow with me!

In the preface @angeladuckw talks about how her father commented frequently on how she wasn’t a genius, but ultimately she found that grit overcame this perceived intellectual gap and she went on to win the MacArthur Genius Grant.

In chapter 1 she discusses the rigors of the “Beast” training at Westpoint. They found that those who completed the training were not more talented, but grittier and had a “never give up” attitude.

“Some people are great when things are going well, but fall apart when things aren’t.”

She described how the highly accomplished have no realistic expectation of ever catching up to their ambitions. This sounds a lot like imposter syndrome. Is this a potential benefit to imposter syndrome, or does it reflect the value in setting high goals?

She discusses the separation of talent and grit: “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” How do we train ourselves and others to persist and allow our talents to be fully utilized?

How have comments made to you about your abilities affected you in your training and career?

The rigors of the beast can be paralleled in some ways with medical training. This “never give up” attitude is similar to “resilience” which we hear so much about. Is encouraging grit the answer or a form of victim blaming in a hostile environment?

One of my favorite quotes may reflect this in different phrasing: “Any man who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved has already defined his own limitations.”
~ Cavett Robert

In chapter 2 she says that it was her job to figure out how to sustain effort - both the students’ and her own, just a little bit longer. How can we do this as teachers?

William James said that there is a gap between potential and its actualization & “the human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum.”

How can we decrease this gap?

“There is a ‘naturalness bias’ that is a hidden prejudice against those who’ve achieved what they have because they worked for it, and a hidden preference for those whom we think arrived at their place in life because they’re naturally talented.”

How does this bias affect who we select for medical training and how we subsequently teach them? How can we fight this bias?

"With everything perfect we do not ask how it came to be. We rejoice in the present fact as thought it came out of the ground by magic." ~ Nietzche

She states that "We prefer our excellence fully formed. We prefer mystery to mundanity."

Talent x Effort = Skill
Skill x Effort = Achievement

"Talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them." Talent matters, but effort factors in twice.

To do anything really well, you have to overextend yourself. I came to appreciate that in doing something over & over again, something that was never natural becomes almost second nature. You learn that you have the capacity for that, & that it doesn't come overnight ~John Irving

Staying in a difficulty situation is hard, but staying true to your commitment and going back to that situation day after day is reflective of grit.

"Skill is not the same thing as achievement. Without effort, your talent is nothing more than what you could have done but didn't. With effort, talent becomes skill and, at the very same time, effort makes skill productive."

"Skipping around from one kind of pursuit to another - from one skill set to an entirely different one - that's not what gritty people do."

"And here's the really important thing. Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you're willing to stay loyal to it."

"It's doing what you love, but not just falling in love - staying in love."

"Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare."

In chapter 4 she discusses developing a top-level goal, and then making sure your mid-level and low-level goals work to serve a goal of supreme importance.

How do we define our ultimate goal? How do we form a goal hierarchy that fits into our ultimate goal when we have so many competing interests? How do we remove tasks/goals that do not serve our ultimate goal when they are thrust upon us as obligations from others?

“Indeed, giving up on lower-level goals is not only forgivable, it’s sometimes absolutely necessary. You should give up when one lower level goal can be swapped for another that is more feasible.”

How do we help our trainees see the benefit in swapping lower level goals when they are focused on time constraints of training programs and fear disappointing others?

“High, but not the highest intelligence, combined with the greatest degree of persistence, will achieve greater eminence than the highest degree of intelligence with somewhat less persistence.” ~ Catharine Cox

All of our trainees are intelligent, but it’s common to feel inadequate. We need to remind them of this regularly.

Four psychological assets that mature paragons of grit have in common:
1. Interest
2. Passion
3. Purpose
4. Hope

"Hope is a rising-to-the-occasion kind of perseverance. Hope does not define the last stage of grit. It defines every stage."

We often have trainees who struggle to define a specialty focus or research project because they aren’t passionate about anything or they like everything a little. Can we help them by explaining that passion is formed through the phases of discovery, development, & deepening.

How can we be the best teachers for trainees who are in the “discovery” or “play” phase of developing their passion? She states that the best mentors are warm and supportive, and also allow for autonomy.

For people in the discovery phase of developing their passion, she encourages then to trigger nascent interests by going out and DOING something. "Experiment! Try! You'll certainly learn more than if you don't!"

Hester Lacy describes successful people: "It's a persistent desire to do better. It's the opposite of bring complacent. But it's a positive state of mind, not a negative one. It's not looking backward with dissatisfaction. It's looking forward and wanting to grow."

How do experts practice productively?
1. Set a goal regarding a specific weakness.
2. Seek out challenges and strive to reach the stretch goal.
3. Hungrily seek feedback (and utilize it).
4. Repeat until mastery.
5. Set a new stretch goal.

How can we use this framework to teach our trainees to continually grow rather than have stagnant growth despite continued experience?

"There are no gains without pains." ~ Benjamin Franklin

"Even when learning is hard, it is not bitter when you feel that it is worth having, that you can master it, that practicing what you learned will express who you are and help you achieve what you desire." ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Shame leads to feelings of failure & makes practice unpleasant. How can we as teachers model emotion-free mistake-making or create a learning environment that protects against that. We want our trainees to do deliberate practice & then say, "That was hard! It was great!"

The basic requirements of deliberate practice:
1. A clearly defines stretch goal
2. Full concentration and effort
3. Immediate and informative feedback
4. Repetition with reflection and refinement

"Interest is one source of passion. Purpose - the intention to contribute to the well-being of others - is another. The mature passions of gritty people depend on both"

"While interest is crucial to sustaining passion over the long-term, so, too, is the desire to connect with and help others."

"Those fortunate people who do see their work as a calling - as opposed to a job or a career - reliably say 'my work makes the world a better place.' And it's these people who seem most satisfied with their jobs and their lives overall."

People who focus on goals that are both intrinsically rewarding (i.e., interesting or fun) and are also altruistic (i.e., I get to help people or make the world better), are more engaged and productive.

Recommendations on how to cultivate a sense of purpose:
1. Reflect on how the work you're already doing can make a positive contribution to society.

Recommendations on how to cultivate a sense of purpose:
2. Think about how, in small but meaningful ways, you can change your current work to enhance its connection to your core values.

Recommendations on how to cultivate a sense of purpose:
3. Find inspiration in a purposeful role model.

"Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future... The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again."

"It isn't suffering that leads to hopelessness. It's suffering you think you can't control."

"Optimists are just as likely to encounter bad events as pessimists. Where they diverge is their explanations: optimists habitually search for temporary and specific causes of their suffering, whereas pessimists assume permanent and pervasive causes are to blame."

"Permanent and pervasive explanations for adversity turn minor complications into major catastrophes. They make it seem logical to give up."

"When you keep searching for ways to change your situation for the better, you stand a chance of finding them. When you stop searching, assuming they can't be found, you guarantee they won't."

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't - you're right." ~ Henry Ford

"Language is one way to cultivate hope. By modeling a growth mindset - demonstrating by our actions that we truly believe people can learn - may be even more important."

"A fixed mindset about ability leads to pessimistic explanations of adversity, and that, in turn, leads to both giving up on challenges and avoiding them in the first place."

"In contrast, a growth mindset leads to optimistic ways of explaining adversity, and that, in turn, leads to perseverance and seeking out new challenges that will ultimately make you even stronger."

"The point is that you can, in fact, modify your self-talk, and you can learn to not let it interfere with you moving toward your goals. With practice and guidance, you can change the way you think, feel, and, most important, act when the going gets rough."

"You don't need to be a parent to make a difference in someone's life. If you just care about them and get to know what's going on, you can make an impact. Try to understand what's going on in their life and help them through that." ~ Cody Coleman

"The bottom line on culture and grit is: If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it. If you're a leader, and you want people in your organization to be grittier, create a gritty culture."

"So it seems to me that there's a hard way to get grit and an easy way. The hard way is to do it by yourself. The easy way is to use conformity - the basic human drive to fit in - because if you're around a lot of people who are gritty, you're going to act grittier."Dan Chambliss

"Often, our passion and perseverance do not spring from a cold, calculating analysis of the costs and benefits of alternatives. Rather, the source of our strength is the person we know ourselves to be."

"Thinking of yourself as someone who is able to overcome tremendous adversity often leads to behavior that confirms that self-conception... Grit is who you are."

"It sometimes feels like we have nothing left to give, and yet, in those dark and desperate moments, we find that is we just keep putting one foot in front of the other, there is a way to accomplish what all reason seems to argue against."

"You have to learn to get over bumps in the road and mistakes and setbacks. Failures are going to happen, and how you deal with them may be the most important thing in whether you succeed. You need fierce resolve. You need to take responsibility." ~ Jamie Dimon

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly 1/

; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; 2/

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." ~ Teddy Roosevelt 3/3

"Have a fierce resolve in everything you do. Demonstrate determination, resiliency, and tenacity. Do not let temporary setbacks become permanent excuses. Use mistakes and problems as opportunities to get better - not reasons to quit." ~ Jamie Dimon

"Talent is common; what you invest to develop that talent is the critical final measure of greatness." ~ Anson Dorrance

"The true joy in life is to be a force of fortune instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." ~George Bernard Shaw

"Personally, I have learned that if you create a vision for yourself and stick with it, you can make amazing things happen in your life. My experience is that once you have done the work to create the clear vision, ... 1/2

...it is the discipline and effort to maintain that vision that can make it all come true. The two go hand in hand. The moment you've created that vision, you're on your way, but it's the diligence with which you stick to that vision that allows you to get there." ~Pete Carroll

"Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts." ~John Wooden

Mike Gervais says that two key factors promote excellence in individuals and teams: "deep rich support and relentless challenge to improve."

"You can grow your grit.. You can grow your grit 'from the inside out': You can cultivate your interests. You can develop a habit of daily challenge-exceeding-skill practice. You can connect your work to a purpose beyond yourself. And you can learn to hope when all seems lost."

"You can also grow your grit 'from the outside in.' Parents, coaches, teachers, bosses, mentors, friends - developing your personal grit depends critically on other people."

Regarding her daughters: "They've glimpsed the satisfaction that comes from doing something important -for yourself and others- and doing it well, and doing it even though it's so very hard. They want more of that... 1/2

They recognize that complacency has its charms, but none worth trading for the fulfillment of realizing their potential." 2/2

"Finishing whatever you begin without exception is a good way to miss opportunities to start different, possibly better, things. Ideally, even if you're discontinuing one activity and choosing different lower-order goals, you're still holding fast to your ultimate concern."

"We all face limits - not just in talent, but in opportunity, But more often then we think, our limits are self-imposed. We try, fail, and conclude we've bumped our heads against the ceiling of possibility... 1/2

...Or maybe after taking just a few steps we change direction. In either case, we never venture as far as we might have." 2/2

"To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight."

"Having a clear sense of one-self galvanizes subsequent perseverance for one's goal engagements."

"Clarity won't give you more hours in the week, but it will help you get more out of your hours."

"Ask your kids to do something that will teach them, through experience, deliberate practice and resilience. But also make sure they're doing things they find interesting and enjoyable, even if it doesn't seem that they could ever lead to anything more serious... 1/2

... Why? Because the ultimate goal is to grow up to develop a calling - a fun thing that is also a hard thing." 2/2

"It's often said that the last mile is the longest. Grit keeps you on the path."

It would take far too many tweets to type, so please see the recommended reading here. I will be adding these to my reading list, but I recommend you start with “Grit” if you haven’t. This book and science has the capability to change the world if we let it.

I’ve started making my own changes, with notes to myself on important topics, and goal charts. We make changes more effectively if we practice new skills in close proximity to when we learn them. I encourage you to start reading and practicing, too.

It may be modified over time, but I’m committing myself to an “ultimate goal” by putting my truest passion into words attached to my office cabinets: “Heal Many Through Transforming Communication.” What are your goals?

Now that I've finished the book (and this thread), I want to take a moment and thank @angeladuckw for her expertise, passion, and the perseverance it took to write this book that I know will make my life (and hopefully your's) better.

Okay, @threadreaderapp - the thread is done now if you'd like to unroll (please)!