We all want to succeed and succeed hard. We want our kids to have the best things in the world. We push our kids to work hard, get good grades, and acquire a diverse skill set in the hope that they will leverage all of this to become successful. The common premise is that people who are intelligent, who have high IQ, who get good grades, who are quick learners and who do well at school are the ones who will be successful in life. Subconsciously this has become a measure of success.  But is this the right question?

Do you ever judge people on how far they succeed? Do you know someone who did not succeed as well as you thought.

Albert Einstein was a poor student at school; Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg did not complete college. There are many successful people around us who dropped out of school telling us that being intelligent and getting good grades is NOT a sign of future success.

Then what is the sign of success? How can we predict if one can be successful? What do employers need to look for as they hire their employees? What do parents and teachers need to know make their kids successful?

Take a listen to what Angela Lee Duckworth says in this Ted Talk.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8&w=640&h=385]

Click here if you prefer to read the transcript of this Ted Talk.

What does Angela say?

Angela says that in all of her research, the one characteristic that stood up as a significant predictor of success is GRIT.

She defines Grit as passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is living life like a marathon, not a sprint.

What does research say?

In this Linked in article “What Predicts Success? It’s not your IQ”; Daniel Goleman details about a research study done at the University of Pennsylvania. According to this study, Students that earned the highest grades weren’t necessarily the ones with the highest IQs, but rather those who had an attitude called “grit” – the ones that kept trying despite setbacks and failures.

Goleman also points to another study which found that cognitive control predicted success better than a child’s IQ.

Cognitive control refers to abilities such as controlling impulses, managing negative emotions, and delaying gratification in pursuit of long-term goals, Goleman says.

How do we set ourselves for success?

Based on our observations and research we know “Grit” is an important trait that one needs to build to become more successful.

Take this Grit survey to check your grit level.

What is Grit?

Grit is having the Determination, Courage, Commitment and Belief that you can do what you aim to do.

Grit is not quitting until you succeed.

Grit is a mindset, a growth mindset.

If you recollect The Tortoise and the Hare story, it’s the Tortoise perseverance that led him to win the race. The Tortoise had GRIT.

 How To Build Grit?

Developing growth mindset – Quoting Angela Lee Duckworth – “this is an idea developed at Stanford University by Carol Dweck and it is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed, that it can change with your effort”

As Robin Sharma says – Your “I Can” is more important that your IQ.

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In the book Big Leap, Gay Hendricks says that we all have a success setting that we set for ourselves usually in early childhood. When you exceed this success setting, you tend to sabotage yourselves and fall down. This is why we often see so many people who reach to the top and disappear. In order to avoid this and experience success again and again, we need to train reset our success settings – that is we need to reset our belief of what we can achieve. We need to give ourselves the permission to reach our full potential and truly succeed.

The distinguishing competencies of successful people are

• Confidence – believing in themselves.
• Persuasion
• Perseverance
• Vision
• Goal Setting
• Self- management and Self-awareness
• Ability to handle stress and pressure.

We need to work on building these skills to build the courage and determination we need to succeed.

How to Maintain Grit?

We have seen so many examples of people living someone else’s dream. We see kids choosing professions based on their parents expectations. Or choosing a career due to their circumstances. And we see they struggle to excel at it.

This is because what they do does not motivate them. If you do something without wanting to do it, you will not give your best and you will not succeed.

To be successful you need to be motivated by what you do. You need to connect to the “Why” of what you do.

Motivation & Inspiration fuels grit and helps you maintain it.

What do you look for in successful people? How do you build and maintain your grit? Leave your feedback in the comments below.