Success is quite a difficult concept. It’s incredibly personal but whether you measure success by wealth, quality of service, or your relationships with other people, it seems that the ability to stick at a task is crucial. Some people call this grit. In assessing the success or failure of West Point graduates, researches identified “grit” as one of the required characteristics.
Grit is about having what some researchers call an “ultimate concern”–a goal you care about so much that orders and structures almost everything you do. Grit is holding steadfast to that goal. Even when you fall down. Even when you screw up. Even when progress toward that goal is halting or slow.
I suppose an issue with this is you can be gritty in the pursuit of a goal or an idea, but be a lazy total toss pot in other areas.
Angela Duckworth is acknowledged as a leading grit researcher
Here are some of her ideas in her own words
This little test may help you consider how gritty you are. Im not sure if you should see this as an overall personality test, or consider a specific aspect of your life. Maybe try both.
I have some of my clients use this scale when assessing their commitment to fitness, olympic weight lifting, gymnastics, diet and first aid provision.
Short Grit Scale
Directions for taking the short Grit Scale:
Please respond to the following 8 items. Be honest – there are no right or wrong answers!
1. New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones.*
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
- 2. Setbacks don’t discourage me.
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
- 3. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.*
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
- 4. I am a hard worker.
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
5. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.*
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
6. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.*
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
7. I finish whatever I begin.
- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
8. I am diligent.- Very much like me
- Mostly like me
- Somewhat like me
- Not much like me
- Not like me at all
SCORING
For questions 2, 4, 7 and 8 assign the following points:
5 = Very much like me
4 = Mostly like me
3 = Somewhat like me
2 = Not much like me
1 = Not like me at all
For questions 1, 3, 5 and 6 assign the following points:
1 = Very much like me
2 = Mostly like me
3 = Somewhat like me
4 = Not much like me
5 = Not like me at all
Add up all the the points and divide by 8.
The maximum score on this scale is 5 (extremely gritty), and lowest score on this scale is 1 (not at all gritty)
Duckworth, A.L, & Quinn, P.D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit- S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166-174. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Duckworth%20and%20Quinn.pdf
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D.R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1087-1101. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Grit%20JPSP.pdf
This blog article was drawn from an uncredited online PDF “Grit-8-item.pdf”
My name is Andrew Stemler and I’m a london based personal fitness trainer. You can contact me here andrew@andrewstemler.com