Some people probably think that mental toughness is for elite athletes, or high profile CEO’s, or soldiers, and well it is! But having grit or “passion and perseverance for long-term goals” is valuable for all of us.
Grit is needed for the long haul of parenting, for relationships, for rewriting the history of our lives, for work and for home. How gritty you are predicts whether you will achieve your goals. Specifically, the big, challenging goals that are personally meaningful to you.
Learn more about grit with these grit quotes below from Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
If you are here because you feel like giving up I hope these quotes about grit encourage you. You are stronger than you realise!
Grit Quotes
What we accomplish in the marathon of life depends tremendously on our grit—our passion and perseverance for long-term goals.
Angela Duckworth
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.
Angela Duckworth
Success is never final; failure is never fatal. Its courage that counts.
Angela Duckworth
There have been so many times in my career when I wanted to pack it in, when I wanted to give up and do something easier,” Rhonda told me. “But there was always someone who, in one way or another, told me to keep going. I think everyone needs somebody like that. Don’t you?
Angela Duckworth
Use mistakes and problems as opportunities to get better—not reasons to quit.
Angela Duckworth
In other words, we want to believe that Mark Spitz was born to swim in a way that none of us were and that none of us could. We don’t want to sit on the pool deck and watch him progress from amateur to expert. We prefer our excellence fully formed. We prefer mystery to mundanity.
Angela Duckworth
Have a fierce resolve in everything you do.
Angela Duckworth
If you want to bring forth grit in your child, first ask how much passion and perseverance you have for your own life goals. Then ask yourself how likely it is that your approach to parenting encourages your child to emulate you.
Angela Duckworth
The scientific research is very clear that experiencing trauma without control can be debilitating. But I also worry about people who cruise through life, friction-free, for a long, long time before encountering their first real failure.
They have so little practice falling and getting up again. They have so many reasons to stick with a fixed mindset. I see a lot of invisibly vulnerable high-achievers stumble in young adulthood and struggle to get up again. I call them the “fragile perfects.” Sometimes I meet fragile perfects in my office after a midterm or a final. Very quickly, it becomes clear that these bright and wonderful people know how to succeed but not how to fail.
Angela Duckworth
Since novelty is what your brain craves, you’ll be tempted to move on to something new, and that could be what makes the most sense. However, if you want to stay engaged for more than a few years in any endeavor, you’ll need to find a way to enjoy the nuances that only a true aficionado can appreciate. “The old in the new is what claims the attention,” said William James. “The old with a slightly new turn.
Angela Duckworth
Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.
Angela Duckworth
When it comes to how we fare in the marathon of life, effort counts tremendously.
Angela Duckworth
“Stay positive,” Cody said. “Go past those negative beliefs in what’s possible and impossible and just give it a try.”
Angela Duckworth
There are no shortcuts to excellence. Developing real expertise, figuring out really hard problems, it all takes time―longer than most people imagine.
Angela Duckworth
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.
Angela Duckworth
I won’t just have a job; I’ll have a calling. I’ll challenge myself every day. When I get knocked down, I’ll get back up. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I’ll strive to be the grittiest.
Angela Duckworth
…as much as talent counts, effort counts twice.
Angela Duckworth
Demonstrate determination, resiliency, and tenacity.
Angela Duckworth
Grit grows as we figure out our life philosophy, learn to dust ourselves off after rejection and disappointment, and learn to tell the difference between low-level goals that should be abandoned quickly and higher-level goals that demand more tenacity. The maturation story is that we develop the capacity for long-term passion and perseverance as we get older.
Angela Duckworth
I learned a lesson I’d never forget. The lesson was that, when you have setbacks and failures, you can’t overreact to them.
Angela Duckworth
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.
Angela Duckworth
I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better.
Angela Duckworth
One form of perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday.
Angela Duckworth
Staying on the treadmill is one thing, and I do think it’s related to staying true to our commitments even when we’re not comfortable. But getting back on the treadmill the next day, eager to try again, is in my view even more reflective of grit.
Because when you don’t come back the next day—when you permanently turn your back on a commitment—your effort plummets to zero. As a consequence, your skills stop improving, and at the same time, you stop producing anything with whatever skills you have.
Angela Duckworth
No whining. No complaining. No excuses.
Angela Duckworth
Well okay, that didn’t go so well, but I guess I will just carry on.
Angela Duckworth
Do not let temporary setbacks become permanent excuses.
Angela Duckworth
The first is that everyone—including Mom and Dad—has to do a hard thing. A hard thing is something that requires daily deliberate practice.
I’ve told my kids that psychological research is my hard thing, but I also practice yoga. Dad tries to get better and better at being a real estate developer; he does the same with running. My oldest daughter, Amanda, has chosen playing the piano as her hard thing. She did ballet for years, but later quit. So did Lucy.
Angela Duckworth
Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. “I have a feeling tomorrow will be better” is different from “I resolve to make tomorrow better.”
Angela Duckworth
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.
Angela Duckworth
Thing Rule: You can quit. But you can’t quit until the season is over, the tuition payment is up, or some other “natural” stopping point has arrived. You must, at least for the interval to which you’ve committed yourself, finish whatever you begin.
Angela Duckworth
Why were the highly accomplished so dogged in their pursuits? For most, there was no realistic expectation of ever catching up to their ambitions. In their own eyes, they were never good enough. They were the opposite of complacent. And yet, in a very real sense, they were satisfied being unsatisfied.
Each was chasing something of unparalleled interest and importance, and it was the chase—as much as the capture—that was gratifying. Even if some of the things they had to do were boring, or frustrating, or even painful, they wouldn’t dream of giving up. Their passion was enduring.
Angela Duckworth
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More About Goal Setting
- Benefits of Goal Setting
- 90 Day Goal Planner
- Achieve Your Goals Successfully
- 80/20 Rule
- How To Slow Down Your Life
- When You Feel Like Giving Up
