[Author’s Note: This is the fifth in a five-article series on meta-cognitive skills and their role in running, education, and life. If you enjoy this article, go read the previous articles persistence, resilience, patience, and courage.]
The fifth and final skill in my Ultrarunning Skill series, grit, is in many ways the most fascinating. And, it also represents, to me, the confluence of all five skills I have discussed in this series. As regular readers of this column know, I have written on grit twice before here in the Taproom. First, in January 2012:
And then again, in October 2012:
Further Ruminations on Grit (And an Unscientific Study Proposal)
In my research and observations, what I find so interesting in the discourse on grit is how elusive a specific measurement of grit is. While Angela Duckworth and her team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created the grit scale and a series of rubrics through which they can analyze grittiness, there remains an air of mystery about what exactly grit is and, perhaps more importantly, whether or not it can be taught, nurtured, and objectively assessed.
That, paradoxically, is precisely what fascinates me about grit. Whether it is kids in the classroom or runners on the trail, grit is something that does not discriminate and is painfully obvious in its absence. Some people simply have more of it than others. And, on top of that, there are those who seem to be endowed with a healthy dose of grit who don’t know what to do with it and others who seem to scrape and claw for every little bit they can find and grow and evolve into some of the grittiest people out there. And, perhaps most importantly, especially in school, out on the trail, and in day-to-day life, a lack of grit seems to show up for many at the most inopportune times.
My suggestion on all this would be, if I could be so bold, for educators and runners to embrace the data on grit. To seek answers to the mystery behind who has it and who doesn’t, and to seek to find a way to make sense of how best to use grit as an advantage for those who have it and to mitigate against the downside for those who don’t. The stories that would emerge from both sides of that ledger could be fascinating.
Finally, I challenge all of you to go to the finish line of a 100-mile race sometime in 2014. I urge you to carve out the time to hang out in that glorious place all day and all night and to meet the people who finish. I have done this and I can assure you it is an extraordinary window into the human experience.
I encourage you to talk to the finishers, help them if necessary, ask them questions, listen to their poignant mumblings, and absorb their wisdom. Because it is there, I believe, in that crucible of human exhaustion and exhilaration, that the inflection point of resilience, persistence, patience, courage, and grit resides. That place has something to teach us all!
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Brew’s Beer of the Month Week
Jen and I spent the last month and a half touring North and South Carolina, Georgia, North “Flur-da” (aka, Baja Georgia), and East Tennessee, and we visited Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. in Greensboro, North Carolina right before Thanksgiving. (Side note: If you don’t know who Natty Greene is, you better recognize. The dude was, like, the most important general in the Revolutionary War after GW, and a key reason why we don’t have all have gnarly British teeth today.) Lucky for us, Natty Greene’s was already making their Red Nose Winter Ale. It’s an American red infused with ginger, orange peel, and cinnamon. Full-bodied, smooth, and weighing in at a hefty 6.8% ABV, Red Nose is perfect for curling up by the fire on a cold winter night, or for helping you endure your version of Cousin Eddie at the family Christmas party. Because let’s be honest, both are part of the holiday season.
Call for Comments (from Bryon)
- Where have you seen grit this year?
- Have you found moments where you saw grittiness in yourself… or when you realized you lacked it?
