The importance of grit and passion for success is a question remaining in debate within the field of psychology, and the concept of grit is an invention of recent date. The importance of grit as it refers to passion and perseverance as a determinant factor of success is controversial and debated across the academic world. Grit and passion are important for success because perseverance and passion are strong indicators of performance, they create long-term goals and a willingness to achieve them, and grittier individuals are more likely to perform better long-term.
Perseverance and passion are strong indicators of performance. According to Jachimowicz et al. (2018), “The combination of high perseverance and high passion attainment increases performance by promoting the intensity of focus individuals’ experience”. Grit is defined as “passion and perseverance for long-term goals” (Duckworth, 2007), in this definition, it is notable that passion and perseverance are equal parts of “grit”. In the study of Jachimowicz (2018), research uncovered statistical evidence that when an individual has high levels of both perseverance and passion attainment they are likely to perform well in work and education environments. To measure this, researchers gave tests to employees in different fields of different ages and education levels, measured using both their scale to measure passion attainment, as well as the Grit-S test developed by Duckworth (2007) that they believed only reliably measured an individual’s perseverance. The results showed that only using Duckworth’s Grit-S test, the individual who scored higher on the test was not consistently higher performing than those who scored lower (Jachimowicz, 2018), but an individual who scored highly on both their own developed passion test as well as Duckworth’s Grit-S test performed consistently better than those who scored low on both, or high on only one of the two tests, regardless of age or education level (Jachimowicz, 2018). Passion is what creates immersion when combined with perseverance, which is a key factor in the success rate of high-grit individuals (Jachimowicz, 2018). The correlation between individuals who admit to immersion in their work, and high scores on grit and passion tests is incredibly high, which Jachimowicz (2018) believes is the main contributor to success, rather than a single factor of grit. This conclusively proved that when both factors of grit are considered, an individual will perform higher than an individual who lacks in either factor or all factors, showing that perseverance and passion are strong indicators of performance.
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Grittier individuals create long-term goals and have a willingness to achieve them. Individuals with a higher level of grit, as defined by Duckworth (2007), are more likely to see out their long-term goals, despite shortcomings or setbacks, because they believe that the investment in their long-term goal will have a beneficial outcome (Disabato et al. 2018). Duckworth (2007) theorizes that “The gritty individual not only finishes tasks at hand but pursues a given aim over years.”, Duckworth (2007) theorizes that what sets apart gritty and non-gritty individuals is the ability to overcome short-term obstacles in the pursuit of long-term goals. In this theory, grittier people are more likely to remain focused on long-term goals than others. Grit can be an effective indicator of success for an individual of any age, as grit gives the individual stamina to achieve their goal (Duckworth, 2007), stamina in this sense meaning the endurance to overcome setbacks and temporary disadvantages, with Duckworth (2014) theorizing that a gritty individual will use this effectively to remain focused on their singular superordinate goal that dominates their decision-making process. The main difference between an individual high in grit with a superordinate goal, and another individual lacking in grit with a superordinate goal is the ability to maneuver obstacles that present themselves after the individual has established a plan to achieve the goal (Duckworth, 2014) and in this scenario, the grittier individual will do what they deem necessary to continue pursuing their superordinate goal, while the other, less gritty individual will likely adapt their plan, and possibly their goals, to continue (Duckworth, 2014). An individual who is high-scoring in grit is more likely to achieve long-term goals.