Is Grit the Goal?
By Mallory McPherson-Wehan
During January on F*ck Wellness, Lara, Makena, and I discussed the Grit Scale, developed by psychology researcher Angela Duckworth. We knew about the concept at the time, but a lot of people messaged us that they were big fans of her work, so I felt obliged to give the entire book a read.
It took me about a month to read it because I couldn’t read more than a few pages without getting frustrated or riled up. I disagree with the general assumption of the book -- that some people are grittier than others. As someone who studies motivation and behavior change, I can tell you that the concepts of grit, passion and perseverance, are largely environmental and situational. For example, Duckworth starts the book with the example of West Point cadets in their first summer at a military academy. She explains that her Grit Scale can predict who will drop out during the first summer and who will stay. That is all well and good, but that doesn’t mean that the dropouts won’t display “grit” in another equally challenging situation. The cadets that drop out of West Point may end up in another gritty atmosphere that better aligns with their interests.
This leads me to my next problem with the book -- that being gritty is a sign of success. In the West Point example, the cadets who dropped out weren’t inherently less “successful” because they dropped out. In fact, the decision to leave may have been the best choice they ever made. I think we can all agree that being passionate and persevering through challenges is important, but it doesn’t tell us anything about someone’s worth as a person. It also doesn’t tell us whether a person will be passionate or perseverant in other situations.
The Grit Scale measures a singular point in time, usually a specific challenge. We call that a “cross-sectional” survey because it only provides information about that moment in time. It tells us nothing about that person before or after the survey. In Duckworth’s example of National Spelling Bee participants, she found that she could predict the winners using the Grit Scale. Again, this information tells us these students’ grit on one task, in one arena. The students who didn’t win aren’t necessarily less gritty on the whole. For those who don’t have a lot of “grit” in one area of their life -- like spelling -- but are gritty in other areas of life, does that make them less successful? What if the winner of the spelling bee has no passion or perseverance in any other area of her life? Is she still successful?
Another part of the book I struggled with was when Duckworth advises readers on how to tap into their grit. Her main advice is to have a high-level goal that you pursue doggedly. Make sure that your mid-level and low-level goals align with the high-level goal. As someone floundering in the universe at the moment, the idea of having one high-level goal made me want to puke. Does the fact that I have yet to identify such a goal mean I’m not gritty? I think of all of my friends, all equally lost or questioning in their careers. Do we all lack grit? Duckworth repeatedly uses the idea of sticking with one thing as an example of grit. A student came up to her after a talk at a university and said he thought he was gritty because he had persevered through all these barriers to create a start-up at his college. Duckworth’s response was to call her in 10 years and if he was still working on that same project then he would be considered gritty. Where does grit factor into healthy change and growth? What if this student decided he hated business and wanted to be an artist? The concept of sticking with one thing seems the antithesis of what millennials are doing -- which is trying out a bunch of different things. I have read that millennials will switch careers 5-7 times in their lifetime. Does grit just not apply to millennials? Are other generations just more gritty? Or is gritty just a bad measure of “success”? I think about my mom, who switched careers halfway through life to become a nurse. My mom is incredibly gritty, but that may not be demonstrated by her career change. I would argue that her career change is evidence of her grittiness, not evidence of a deficit.
Finding a purpose, a high-level goal, is the common thread that ties together so many CEOs, Olympic athletes, world-renowned artists, etc. Those people must have grit. But a dishwasher at a restaurant working two different jobs does not fall into Duckworth’s definition of grit. Arguably, a stay-at-home parent doesn’t fall into Duckworth’s definition either, but I think we can all agree parents need grit.
My last point is this: I believe that the Grit Scale is a validated and reliable measure of something. I’m just not yet totally sure of what. What is the utility of defining grit and what does it genuinely tell us about someone? Does it tell us their value? Their work ethic? Whether or not they will be successful? I also wonder if grit just fits perfectly into our capitalistic nightmare of productivity and efficiency. Gritty, but to what end?
Duckworth doesn’t really talk about intrinsic or extrinsic motivators in her book, but I think that concept is key. What if grit is motivated entirely by extrinsic pressures? Think about a high schooler that must become an incredible athlete to win a scholarship to college. At what point is that a survival mechanism and not just “grit”? We would see this high schooler and praise her for her discipline and grit, but maybe she has no interest in being an athlete. There are times we need to do things that aren’t our favorite, but it’s important those situations align with our values or a personal need at the time. When does praising people for grit miss the reality of motivation and our unique environments?
I can think of lots of times I displayed “gritty” qualities, but I can think of a lot of times I didn’t. The times I didn’t taught me as much about myself as the times I did. I also think about environments in which I was more motivated than others. Behavior doesn’t exist in isolation; neither does grit. I think we should aim to find and pursue things we are passionate about. I think there are situations where we do need to push out of our comfort zones a bit. But leaving a passion or choosing to stick in your comfort zone doesn’t make you a bad person or someone who is incapable of success. I don’t think Angela Duckworth would say either of those things, but in her book she implies that success is defined by discipline, determination, and defining your purpose.
What if being gritty means you stick with something you hate for far too long? What if it means you override your body and intuition regularly for some larger high-level goal? Grit is not the goal. It can be a goal, if that makes you happy, but it doesn’t need to be. You are valuable and strong as you are.
