What is grit? 5 ways to develop it without burning out

Grit is a combination of passion and perseverance in an effort to achieve long-term goals. Without passion, perseverance leads to burnout. And without perseverance, we simply give up.

Grit gives people a mental toughness that enables them to persist — and even succeed — in the face of adversity.

For this reason, grit experts such as Duckworth consider grit the single most important personality trait that all high achievers share.

It’s not that these individuals experience fewer setbacks or less hardship than others — it’s that they are adaptive and resilient. They don’t give up when faced with challenges.

In short, grit is the secret to achieving any long-term goal. And the primary difference between those who have grit and those who don’t is their mindset. 

People with more grit have a growth mindset that allows them to see obstacles as challenges and approach them with a positive attitude.

How do you measure grit?

So, how can you measure how gritty you are? The best way is to use a grit scale. 

A grit scale contains ten statements that you rate yourself on using a five-point scale to help determine your level of grit. We’ve pulled the ten questions Angela Duckworth uses in her grit scale below:

1. New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones.
2. Setbacks don’t discourage me. I don’t give up easily.
3. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.
4. I am a hard worker
5. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.
6. I finish whatever I begin.
7. My interests change from year to year.
8. I am diligent. I never give up.
9. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.
10. I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge.

Once completed, Duckworth’s grit scale gives you a score, noting how gritty you consider yourself, based on this self-reported feedback.

If you’re a leader in your organization, you may find it useful to evaluate your grit levels as well as those of your current and potential employees.

Grit matters because it bridges the gap between raw talent and potential and achieving success.

Natural ability and intelligence can only get you so far. Without the drive and determination to follow through, your potential will remain untapped.

Duckworth, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania at the time, studied students from West Point and children in the National Spelling Bee to predict which students and children would excel and which would drop out. She and her research team also looked for the same predictors in teachers at the end of the school year and sales teams. In each of these environments, grit was the ultimate predictor of success.

The simple truth is that achieving anything worthwhile requires effort, and you will face obstacles along the way.

Grit sets you up for future success by giving you the strength to go over, around, or straight through those obstacles.

As Duckworth notes in her book, “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”

This is good news for all of us since it is empowering to know that we can achieve anything with enough grit.

What are the 5 characteristics of grit?

The idea and definition of grit might seem vague. We know it’s essential to keep moving forward and progressing through challenging times. But what goes into being gritty and what is it made of? The specific recipe for grit is as diverse as people are, but these five characteristics can be found in most gritty individuals:

1. Perseverance
2. Resilience
3. Courage
4. Passion
5. Conscientiousness

1. Perseverance

Perseverance is defined as a continued effort to do or achieve something despite the difficulty. So it may come as no surprise that it is a leading characteristic in grittier individuals. Whether it is finding work-life balance, learning a new technical skill, or transitioning into a leadership role, perseverance is crucial to keep growing. Without this trait, individuals are more likely to give up prematurely than put in the hard work needed to achieve their goals.

2. Resilience

Resilience helps us bounce back when we fail or face challenges that seem too tough to overcome. Developing resilience can help you better manage stress and recover more quickly from setbacks. True grit is supported by resilience. When times get rough, it is important to have  an effective self-care practice that builds resilience to ensure you’re progressing in a way that maintains your health.

3. Courage

Having the courage to fail is closely tied to being gritty. Fear of failure can halt progress before we even get close to it. This is amplified when the circumstances become more challenging. Grittier people will take on initiatives that scare them, despite their fear. And this deliberate practice is supported by their growth mindset and desire to learn – even through failure.

4. Passion

It is harder to stay motivated without a strong desire or passion toward your end goal. Taking time to reflect and understand what is important to you and why is an important step in creating goals for the long and short-term. Grit then comes from being driven by this passion, rooted in your values.

5. Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is often thought of as working tirelessly to do a good job, following the rules, and doing what is right. In this context, however, it has a slightly different meaning. When discussing this characteristic as it relates to grit, the value really comes in planning and following through on commitments. Staying motivated to tackle hard things because they’re necessary for long-term success.

Developing grit is possible with practice — what it requires is for you to have a growth mindset. Duckworth discusses this in her Ted Talk, stating that when we embrace a growth mindset, we are more resilient.

If you’re ready to discover how far your grit can take you, follow these five proven strategies for developing grit.

1. Find your passion

Passion is the foundation of grit. If you don’t have enough passion for something, you will not perform to the best of your abilities and will eventually lose interest.

To find your passion, think about what you used to like doing as a child or what you like to do in your spare time.

2. Practice

Talent will only get you so far. Whether you want to perform in the national ballet, climb Everest without oxygen, or develop a new software, it all requires practice.

3. Contribute to a greater purpose

When you feel a sense of purpose, it helps you develop more grit.

It can be more motivating to know that you are improving the lives of others rather than focusing solely on your own goals and achievements.

4. Give yourself time

No one achieves success overnight — achieving long-term goals requires patience.

5. Immerse yourself in gritty culture

Surrounding yourself with gritty people can help you develop more grit.

There’s no question that when you compare everyone in a given population, grit is a key factor, but it doesn’t explain differences at the elite level, where one would assume every individual has comparable levels of it.

It’s clear that without grit, you’ll never have a chance to become elite. 

Grit is what pushes great performers to reach the edge of their ability. It’s what helps them show up and persevere despite incredible odds.

But grit can quickly become an obsession, and a dangerous one at that. 

Professor and researcher Robert J. Vallerand found that obsession can actually undermine sustainable high performance. 

To suggest that your passion should become your obsession is to push someone off a cliff.

So what separates one gritty person from another gritty person? 

The answer lies in flow. While grit brings us to our edge, it’s flow that continually pushes the edge out, and keeps sustainable performers from falling off into the abyss.

Grit is the price of admission at elite levels of performance. It factors into how one would break through to the top, but it doesn’t answer the question, “how do you stay?”

To raise the bar and maintain peak performance, we have to look into flow. Flow is what keeps elite performers on their edge without falling off. 

And while it can be elusive, it’s a scientifically-backed path to sustainable performance and the secret sauce of anyone who strives to become a GOAT (Greatest of All Time).

Flow is the optimal psychological state for becoming one with what you do. 

Experts link it to enhanced performance, creativity, and well-being. Flow states are experienced when you perceive your skills to be a match for a big challenge. 

Another pre-condition for entering and sustaining flow involves having a clear goal for action and feedback relative to your performance that is also clear and immediate.

Research shows that the experience of flow itself becomes a goal in itself. 

A person seeks to replicate the experience only in new and different circumstances. Through the continual experience of flow, you can realize a dynamic upward spiral of personal growth.

By mastering challenges in an activity, you can develop greater levels of skill. And in turn, the activity will cease to be as involved as it was before. 

But in order to continue experiencing flow, you must identify and engage in progressively more complex challenges. 

This is how flow becomes a mechanism for growth in the pursuit of greatness. We create potential in-flow experiences by rendering it present and growing it simultaneously.

“Warren Buffett has always said the measure [of success] is whether the people close to you are happy and love you… It is also nice to feel like you made a difference — inventing something or raising kids or helping people in need.” – Bill Gates

To answer how you would ensure that flow is happening, we have to go back to Robert J. Vallerand’s passion research, which he embarked upon in 2004. 

Vallerand’s research linked flow ability with passion. We now know that individuals who express flow by way of harmonious passion have a more harmonious integration (otherwise: flow that keeps them from descending into a state of obsession, and burnout).

Gritty people that derive such an excessive amount of their self-esteem from their work that they are unable to "turn it off" when they should are likely suffering from the opposite of harmonious passion — obsessive passion. 

Their minds are ruminating on work issues, even when they’re in the presence of significant others outside the office. With this lack of control, obsessive passion has been linked to lower flow experiences. 

Over time, these individuals’ performance becomes less and less sustainable.

Individuals with a harmonious passion for their work identify with their work and become deeply engaged with it, but not to the extent that they neglect other aspects of their life.

On the flip side, individuals that maintain harmonious passion are also gritty, but they have a more complex sense of self.

How does this play out?

Individuals with a harmonious passion for their work identify with their work and become deeply engaged with it, but not to the extent that they neglect other aspects of their life. 

Having control over their passion, they can more easily enter flow at work and experience time with their family at home or a dinner conversation with friends to bring equal intrinsic rewards.

Developing the ability to become fully immersed in flow requires a level of wisdom and maturity, but it’s a skill that can also be developed with the help of a coach.