Would you rather have grit or giftedness?
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Recently, I listened to a podcast where the speaker used the word "grit" in describing a key quality of successful people. I thought to myself that is a great word. It's a core strength of leaders, and it often determines whether you will fail or succeed in life.
Angela Duckworth, a leading expert on grit, says that, "Grit is passion and sustained persistence applied toward long term achievement, with no particular concern for rewards or recognition along the way. It combines resilience, ambition and self-control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years and even decades."
She writes, "People who succeed aren't always the most gifted but rather the ones who work hardest and don't give up."
If you possess grit, you are the kind of person who has tenacity, and determination (nothing will keep you from achieving your goals). Grit will help you get up no matter how many times you get knocked down. Grit will overcome a lot of deficiencies in your life. You won't always be the smartest and most gifted person in the world, but if you have grit, the chances are you will be successful for grittiness will almost always overcome giftedness.
You may possess exceptional talent, gifts and ability, but without grit, others less talented and with less ability will pass you by.
I used to tell my son as he was growing up that "slow and steady wins the race." You may not be the first one out of the starting blocks, but life is not a sprint, but a marathon, and if you possess grit, you'll eventually outdistance the seemingly more gifted in the race.
If you have grit, it means you will work a little harder, last a little longer, fight a little tougher, and in the end your grit will win over other's giftedness. I would rather have a lot of grit with fewer gifts than a lot of gifts with little grit.
One has no farther to look than the Apostle Paul to find an example of one who possessed grit, and I believe it was this quality that made him the spiritual giant he was. He was steadfast, a great synonym for grit. He never quit or gave up. He never backed down no matter the challenge, and even when death stared him in the eye, death always blinked first.
He writes to us, "My dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15: 58).
In relating to challenges believers would confront in the last days when they would come face to face with the dangers of spiritual compromise, Jesus exhorts his disciples "To stand firm and you will gain life." (Luke 21:19)
Call it determination, endurance, steadfastness, or grit, we need this quality in our professional and spiritual lives. Like the banking commercial says, "Don't leave home without it."
"Over time, our grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimlessness."
—John Ortberg
 | Tom Crenshaw serves as Connections Pastor of the New Monmouth Baptist Church (non denominational) where he previously served as a three year interim.He has been married to Jean for almost 50 years, and they have four children, all of whom are teachers.Tom loves perennial gardening, umpiring high school baseball, coaching baseball and football, fishing for small mouth bass, rooting for his favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, and listening to ‘real’ country music, the classic kind. Learn More » |
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