True grit.

Psychologists say that by January 8th, some 25% of our New Year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside. By year end, fewer than 10% have been fully kept. Most of us struggle to achieve worthy long-term goals, such as healthful eating, exercise, fulfilling our career potential, or retiring early.

The power of persistence.

One important determinant of success is self-control—the capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and behavior, despite momentarily more-alluring temptations (got Cheetos?). Yet, over the long-haul, we’re not so good at following through on our intentions (self-control trap*). Why are some more successful than others at achieving their most worthy lifetime goals?

To psychologist Angela Duckworth (2014), the secret isn’t talent or IQ. It’s a personality trait she calls grit. Being gritty, she says, “is having passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.”

Duckworth found that grittier soldiers were more likely to complete an Army Special Operations Forces selection course, grittier sales employees were more likely to keep their jobs, grittier students were more likely to graduate from high school, and grittier men were more likely to stay married. In other words, you can be highly successful, if you just try hard enough!

That nettlesome nitty-gritty.

This may be simplistic. Few disagree that achieving goals of greater enduring value involve sustained motivation, hard work, resiliency, and perseverance. Or, that setbacks or failures will require adjustments. A comprehensive review representing nearly 67,000 individuals (Much ado about grit – 2017), found that, in the aggregate, interventions designed to enhance grit may only have weak effects on performance and success.

Critics also point to other factors—such as family income, who you know, and the overall state of the economy—as allowing some talented people to do much better than others. In fixating solely on grit, we ignore the role of personal character traits, such as integrity and courage, as significant contributors to worthy lifetime goals. Life satisfaction is more than exclusive devotion to doing, at the expense of being.

Just grit and bear it.

If keeping your nose to the grindstone feels like a struggle, that’s because it is. Willpower, for all its short-term benefits, tends to wane over time as we compel ourselves to continue studying, working, exercising, or saving. In the extreme, the mental effort required to maintain focus and keep motivated may be detrimental to our long-term well-being—especially if we fail.

The good news is, like any other personality or character trait, grit can be cultivated. Professor Duckworth sums up the challenge rather nicely: “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” NeXters, you hold the joystick for your life-video. Here are a few ideas:

1. Dream. “Begin with the end in mind,” advises self-help guru Stephen Covey. Create concrete mental pictures of your aspirations, then tape photos of them to the bathroom mirror and refrigerator. Take a few minutes each week to imagine having achieved your goals and enjoying the benefits.
2. Assess. Honestly assess your current knowledge, skills, abilities, and motivations as they relate to your goals. Then, realistically identify what’s required to bridge the gap. Lack of detailed knowledge and misunderstanding the complexity can give a false sense of self-control (superiority trap*) over momentarily more-alluring alternatives.
3. Practice. Deliberate practice is a major factor in developing mastery of a skill (Outliers: The Story of Success – 2011). As much as possible, put practice activities in autopilot. Identify challenges to improving performance and break them into “bite-size” mini-goals. Stretch, make mistakes, learn from them, and keep grinding forward.
4. Anticipate. A premortem (see: Success is overvalued) illuminates negative things that could disrupt your plans and helps prepare for inevitable setbacks. Think about what your life will be like if you fail. Develop an appreciation for the value of time. Be flexible, as preferences may change as new opportunities emerge.
5. Participate. Consider announcing your plan to friends, family, even co-workers. Peer pressure, accountability, and incentives are good ways to increase grit. Ask a tribal elder to objectively evaluate your approach. Even better, find a mentor who gritted through a life-altering event while pursuing a similar endeavor.

Being gritty is about perseverance, hard work, and a passion for autonomy and competence—even in the face of failure. Grit is good (except under the dentures). But maybe we should think of grit as less an antidote to hard-knock life and more as an ongoing quest to master life-complexity. Yes, giving up on a goal guarantees failure. Then again, wise persons know when it’s time to fold the tent and saddle the camel!

Psychologist David DeSteno says establishing and maintaining relationships are equally important. When we experience gratitude and compassion—whether we consciously realize it or not—self-control is no longer a conflict between “now vs. later” temptations. Rather, he says, it increases how much we value the future. As a bonus, it also combats another problem of modern life: loneliness.

* Questionable beliefs can “trap” our better judgment, leading to poor decisions and unintended consequences. In the self-control trap, we fail to follow through on our long-term intentions. In the superiority trap, we over-emphasize our sense of control over tempting alternatives. Learn more about this, and other interesting topics, in the Young Person’s Guide to Wisdom, Power, and Life Success.

Image credit: “Young attractive sexy latin sport woman” by ocusfocus, licensed from 123rf.com (2018).