Resilience Reflections
Balancing Grit and Adaptability
Angela Duckworth describes “grit” as a special blend of persistence and passion; a deep-seated perseverance and consistent effort over time to work toward long-term goals. While adaptability is related to the ability to recover quickly from setbacks and cope with stress, grit can enhance resilience in situations where consistent effort leads to success. Grit emphasizes constancy rather than flexibility. It involves sticking to the same goals, heading down the same path, and maintaining effort over time rather than adapting and bouncing back quickly faced with challenges. Both grittiness and adaptability are needed for resiliency.
Being ‘gritty’ may be important to achieve some long-term goals. Athletes training for the Olympics and musicians practicing for a Professional debut performance may benefit from being ‘gritty’ (as long as they stay healthy) because that level perseverance helps them obtain their goals. Gritty perseverance may lead to great success, such as an athlete after pursuing a career as a professional skier or a piano student who passionately practices a minimum of 3 hours per day to become a professional musician.
While grit is about being persistent about something despite setbacks, one must remain adaptable to be resilient, such as when a goal becomes untenable and change is needed. Persisting when something is unattainable may lead to being less resilient, less hopeful, and less able to cope. If grit is the fuel (passion) then adaptability is the steering wheel (adjustability). There is not an exact formula of 50% Grit + 50% Adaptability being equal to 100% Resilience. It depends on whether we need to be more gritty or to adjust, depending on factors such as personal needs, current goals, support available, and life stressors.
What can we do when adaptability and grit are unbalanced? A few personal grounding ‘mantras’ help me balance what I would like to persevere and focus, adapt to, and let go of:
- “I/We can do it” like Rosie the Riveter or “Just Do It”, the Nike slogan
- “Let it go” like the hit song in Frozen or the Beatles’ song "Let it be"
- “Keep Calm, and Carry On”, the famous slogan (from the British Ministry of Information)
What other thoughts, reflections, mantras and tips help you to balance grit with adaptability?
