How To - Improve your Grit

Grit is your ability to "stay the course" — the consistency of interest and persistence of effort that carry you through long-term goals. It isn't toughness for its own sake. It's the mental stamina to keep moving toward something that genuinely matters to you, even when the work gets hard or the reward is far away.

The good news: Grit is a learnable skill, not a fixed trait. Angela Duckworth's research, supported by AQai's own assessment data, shows Grit tends to increase with age — we get grittier as we practise sticking with things.

"Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare." — Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Grit isn't Resilience

It's easy to confuse the two. Resilience is the ability to recover and adapt after a setback — to bounce back, or bounce forward. Grit is what keeps you pointed at the same long-term goal over months and years. Resilience is about recovery cadence. Grit is about direction held over time. You need both, but you build them differently.

Before you build more Grit — check it's pointed at the right thing

More Grit on the wrong goal is wasted Grit. Research has even named the trap: false hope syndrome — persisting with goals that overconfidence keeps alive long past their usefulness.

So before doubling down, ask:

• Does this goal still align with who I'm becoming, or who I was when I set it?
• If I were setting it today with everything I now know, would I still set it?
• What would letting go of this goal open up?

If the answer is "this still matters", build Grit. If the answer is "I'm holding on out of habit", that's a signal to use your Mental Flexibility and Unlearn dimensions instead — to let go cleanly and redirect.

Five ways to build your Grit

Adapted from Duckworth's four psychological assets, with one added for the team context AQai partners work in.

1. Connect to a genuine interest. Grit grows from passion, and passion grows from interest. If you can't find the thread of what genuinely fascinates you in the work, your Grit will leak. Pay attention to the parts of the goal you'd choose to do even if no one asked.

2. Practise deliberately, in small doses. Grit isn't built in heroic bursts. It's built in short, focused, daily reps where you stretch slightly beyond what you can already do, get feedback, and adjust. One small step forward beats one big step you can't repeat.

3. Anchor to a higher purpose. Grit holds longest when the work serves something beyond you — your team, your clients, a cause, the version of yourself you're becoming. When the immediate task feels meaningless, zoom out to the why.

4. Cultivate hope. Hope here isn't optimism — it's the working belief that effort changes outcomes. Build it by noticing your own progress. Keep a record of the small wins. When you face a hard moment, you can look back and remind yourself: this is how I've moved before.

5. Surround yourself with gritty people. Culture shapes Grit faster than willpower does. Find at least one other person who shares the goal — a running partner, a mastermind group, a study circle, a colleague working on the same skill. Share progress. Be accountable. Celebrate each other's wins.

Exercise — Build a Goal Hierarchy in pencil

Adapted from Decoding AQ.

• At the top of a page, write your ultimate goal — the long-term outcome that holds everything else together.
• Below it, list 3–5 "means" goals — the concrete sub-goals that, if achieved, will move you toward the ultimate goal.
• Write the means goals in pencil. They will need to evolve as you learn what's working and what isn't. The ultimate goal earns the pen.
• Review monthly. Ask of each means goal: is this still the best route to the top?

This single practice gives Grit something to hold onto (the ultimate goal) without locking you in to outdated routes.

Exercise — Building Grit in a team

Leaders can help their teams develop Grit in four practical ways:

• Do hard things together. A genuine challenge that demands a contribution from every team member builds shared Grit faster than any workshop.
• Make the "why" unmistakable. Clarify the mission, the goals, and the reason they matter — and leave room for questions. People persist for purposes they understand.
• Keep the team together through the project. Stable teams develop the trust and cohesion that carry them through the difficult middle.
• Run a real post-mortem at the end. Not a blame session — a lessons-learned conversation with concrete commitments for next time. This is how Grit compounds across projects.

Additional Resources

• Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (summary)
• Take Angela Duckworth's Grit Scale — the original 10-item self-assessment
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance — Angela Duckworth's TED Talk
• Grit vs. Quit (Freakonomics Radio) — when to stick, when to let go