Papo kwa papo kamba hukata jiwe – Swahili proverb (The constant rubbing of a rope will cut the stone)
Grit is defined in Oxford Learners Dictionary as “the courage and strength of mind that makes it possible for somebody to continue doing something difficult or unpleasant.”It is the sustained application of effort towards achieving a long term goal. This is the ability to persevere and keep going in the face of challenges or obstacles. It does not matter how many times one gets down, as long as you pick yourself up and keep moving, putting one leg in front of the other, as they say, one step at a time until you realize the worthy goal you were aiming for. This is grit.
For us to live an inspired harmonious life, we should persevere in the pursuit of our purposeful goals, have the discernment to know when to change strategies that are not working and to keep at it until we attain the goal.
Like any other trait, grit or perseverance can be learned and made to grow in us through practice. I think life has been designed in such a way that we get opportunities on a daily basis to grow in our perseverance or to be gritty if you may. This is true for us human beings and it can also be observed in nature. I recall this story of a boy and a butterfly cocoon.
“Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.
The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.
One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.
The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!
The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand.
But neither happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly…
As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong, his mother took him to talk to a scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s good intentions hurt the butterfly.”(https://sites.google.com/kleinisd.net/wellswolfpack/the-butterfly-story)
Researchers have indicated that grit is one of the most important predictors of success. Angela Duckworth has done research on grit, why some individuals in similar circumstances tend to succeed while others don’t. In her book Grit:the power of passion and perseverance, she states that what people end up achieving may depend more on their passion and perseverance than on innate talent. While notably it is not the only factor, she found grit to be a stronger predictor of high achievement compared to others like talent, intelligence and personality traits. This is the reason why, according to Duckworth, grit is so important. She suggested four ways of cultivating grit:
- Developing a fascination about the things you do.
- Aiming at daily improvement.
- Having a greater purpose for what you do.
- Having hope that things will get better if you encounter a challenge. Maintaining a growth mindset, getting better each day at what you are doing.
I think grit can be observed or applied in short term or long term goals. The parable of the persistent widow told by Jesus illustrates the short term benefits of grit. He told it to encourage his disciples to always pray and never give up. He said “there was a judge
“There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:1-8) While it is not certain whether she went back to this judge the same day or over a period of time, it is clear that her persistence was effective.
Another story I recall that shows persistence and being able to surmount obstacles thrown at you in the moment is that of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 18:21-28 who is hailed by Jesus for her faith, it reads:
“Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Caananite woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.” But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”
Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.” But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!” Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.” “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.”
I recently read a social media post by Allyson Felix, an American Olympic Champion that illustrates the long term benefits of grit. She posted the following after she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine: “I’ll never forget talking with @pwesley22 about the dream of one day being on the @Time cover over 20 years ago. Back then I thought it would represent how fast I could run and how many medals I could potentially win. I realize today that the cover of @time is about change, hope, and inspiring the next generation.
Your dreams should be big, bold, and audacious. Don’t be afraid of them and don’t give up. This dream of mine was 20 years in the making. During that time I finished high school and college. I married my husband and gave birth to my daughter. I buried too many family members. I stood up for the rights of black mothers and for maternity protection for athletes. I won medals, but I lost more. I cried more times than I count and celebrated moments I never imagined could be possible. I’ve felt overlooked, undervalued and thrown away, but if I never had those feelings I never would have been able to create @bysaysh. The purpose of achieving your dreams is to inspire others, but your real reward is the journey. Keep going.”
So what is your perspective on perseverance or grit? Are you persevering in the process towards attaining your goals and dreams?
A warning is imperative here. It is not wise to keep forging ahead if a strategy we are using is clearly or demonstrably not working. As they say if you find yourself in a hole, the best thing is to stop digging. This requires discernment to be aware when a goal is clearly unattainable and that changing course is the best option. It is therefore important to apply grit but with the wisdom on where to apply it. As Confucious said “Perseverance is not the only ingredient to winning. You can stalk a field forever and not get any game if the field does not contain any.”
For us to live an inspired harmonious life, we should have grit and persevere towards achieving the purposeful goals we are pursuing. We should do so with the wisdom of knowing when to change strategies or even goals, when the strategies we are using are not working or the goals we are aiming for are realistically unattainable.
I conclude with this quote from Jacob A. Riis “Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
