Year of the grit

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Like many others, I cannot start out the New Year without taking a turn at emphasizing the importance of personal reflection and setting a plan for improvement. Let me suggest something that will have more lasting effect than a New Year’s resolution. 

I no longer set resolutions for myself, but rather I choose a single word for myself each year. I start by taking some time to reflect upon my strengths and weaknesses. Then I choose an anchor word to help me build on those strengths and diminish my weaknesses. 2016 is the year of GRIT for me.

 Sarah Brown Wessling, the 2010 National Teacher of the Year, blogged about what makes great teachers and learners. She suggests great teachers have passion, empathy, and grit; and great learners are risk-takers, gritty, and curious. Notice both lists include grit. Grit can be described as motivation to achieve a long term goal. Grit isn’t easily burned up or used up in the short term—think learning versus getting a good grade on a single exam.

Both successful learners and teachers have grit. It doesn’t come easily but there are ways to gain grit. To  gain grit, Mark McCatty  builds on others' work and suggests ideas such as resolve, endurance, and engage. 

Angela Duckworth also offers some tips. She writes that people who have grit are “comfortable being uncomfortable. They’re falling down a lot. They’re playing things that are too hard. They’re attempting challenges that are too high. They’re getting feedback.” Developing grit sounds a lot like good learning and teaching.

The Examined Existence website suggests steps such as delaying gratification and embracing challenges.

Join me. How about it? Are you willing to set out for the bigger, gritter picture?

If it isn’t grit you want to develop, spend some time reflecting on what would be beneficial to you in 2016. Choose your own anchor word.

In the next post we will go back to powerful learning strategies, since no one can develop grit or any other attribute without learning.