Grit, Gratitude, and a Happy New Year
"To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight." —Angela Duckworth*
Happy New Year! 🎉
I hope y’all had a lovely Christmas, and I’m sending everyone my best wishes for a successful 2025, filled with the values you are trying to achieve. Thank you to all of you who subscribed to Achievement, Texas, in 2024 or even just stopped by this publication—know that I appreciate each and every one of you.
Grit seemed to be the perfect virtue to discuss to transition between 2024 and 2025.
How was your 2024?
I know a couple of folks—and have read posts here and there from others—for whom 2024 wasn’t a great year. Mine sure tested me in different ways, but, as a result, it provided invaluable life lessons (you’re never too old for these!), helping me grow along the way. I also started new endeavors, including this publication. The past year did require of me that I develop grit in different ways than I had before. A mix of highs and lows slowed me down at times, but overall, I am thankful for the lessons, which I continue to reflect on.
I’m sure you’ve seen the iceberg representation of success before:
This is a good way to show what is actually needed to achieve success in your undertakings—a much more complex and bumpy process than just the result or what other people see.
Here’s another good way to represent the steps that lead to the finish line:
Grit is necessary to persevere and go through all that to eventually reach the top.
Grit is a virtue that I cannot imagine Texans without—building this state to what it has become today required tremendous endurance and perseverance from Tejanos and Texians as they braved a hostile environment and built from scratch, but also for Texans who looked for and discovered oil and those who built and continue to build the fantastic economy Texans can now be proud of.
Did you know that the bison, once native to Texas, faces a storm head-on? This behavior is a powerful metaphor for grit. Rather than letting themselves drift with a storm or waiting in place for it to pass, bison walk head-on into the storm to get out of it sooner rather than later. I like this attitude.
I have been reading a lot about Navy SEALs the past year (more on this here in future articles). The training these young men and women go through, part of which is appropriately called “Hell Week,” helps ensure they can be the elite warriors they will have to be on the battlefield. Although I cannot imagine withstanding this training for more than a couple hours, much less a week, that inspired me tremendously. There are many lessons on virtues and leadership to be learned from this special forces unit.
In her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth talks about the training West Point cadets go through (known as the “Beast”—can you see a pattern in the training names?):
One cadet’s description of Beast: “You are challenged in a variety of ways in every developmental area—mentally, physically, militarily, and socially. The system will find your weaknesses, but that's the point—West Point toughens you.” (p. 5)
Staying within your comfort zone and easy success rarely help you grow. However, you can often learn a lot about yourself and in general from what life throws at you along the way. Grit allows you to get up after you’ve fallen down, persevere, and see the end of the tunnel or the peak of the mountain as you strive to reach them.
Duckworth sums up what those who succeed have in common as follows:
In sum, no matter the domain, the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction.
It was this combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit. (p. 8)
Or, to quote philosopher Ayn Rand,
Well, I always know what I want. And when you know what you want—you go toward it. Sometimes you go very fast, and sometimes only an inch a year. Perhaps you feel happier when you go fast. I don't know. I've forgotten the difference long ago, because it really doesn't matter, so long as you move. (We The Living.)
Grit will carry you through disappointment, failures, and life’s hardships. Like a muscle, the more consistently you use it, the more it grows and develops. “Grit,” Duckworth explains, “is more about stamina than intensity” (p. 53). Your grit manifests “how well you're currently able to persevere in the face of life's rejection slips” (p. 78).
It is, however, important to remember that letting go of something that does not work does not mean you lack grit and are abandoning the high-level value you’re seeking. Think about your GPS: You’re entering your destination, and it tells you how to get there. But if you miss an exit, what happens? The GPS doesn’t tell you, “Ah, you made a mistake, game over. You’re never getting where you want to go.” No, it displays a message such as “recalculating” and then offers another way to get where you want to go. If the path you are on is not the one that leads to your destination, the sooner you realize it, the sooner you can correct course and redirect your energy—and grit—toward that higher value. As a reminder, like for muscles, rest is also necessary to recharge and grow in the process (ask me how I know).
Grit is about working on something you care about so much
that you're willing to stay loyal to it. (p. 54)
In future articles, we'll discuss grit in the context of how Texas was built, and how Texan achievers used it. In the meantime, as an example, here’s a picture of my cat Kitshka using grit to get my attention 🙃
I want to add an element I don’t remember Duckworth mentioning in her book (please correct me if I’m wrong): Grit works even better with gratitude.
A lot (most, if not everyone) of us will go through hardships in life. When it is dark, it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and as a result, we tend to have defeatist thoughts. In these moments, part of what reactivates grit is remembering our past successes and achievements—or how far we’ve come—and being appreciative of that—just because that room we’re currently in is dark does not mean that the sun isn’t shining outside. There’s a lovely song by Christian Country singer Anne Wilson on that theme, Rain in the Rearview:
When the storm rolls in and the sky won't quit crying
And you've lost more tears than you thought you could ever lose
Oh, I swear somewhere out there, the sun is somewhere shining
So, drive, baby, drive, baby, drive 'til it shines on you
And leave the rain in the rearview
Or, to go back to Duckworth’s Grit, it’s looking forward, not backward:
“It's a persistent desire to do better. It's the opposite of being 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.” —Hester Lacey,
quoted in Grit, p. 118.
How did your grit help you move forward in 2024? Share in the comments! 👇
Here’s to a gritty, value-driven year 2025!
* Quote by Angela Duckworth from Facebook here. All page numbers refer to Angela’s Duckworth paperback copy of Grit.