Grit Study of West Point Cadets

Can you guess the one surprising factor that separates West Point cadets who finish the grueling “Beast Barracks” initiation from those who don’t?

It’s not strength … speed … or smarts.

It’s GRIT — aka the passion and perseverance to reach your long-term goals — and it’s a huge component of mental toughness and taking personal responsibility for your outcomes.

AND it can play a big role in helping YOU to reach your goals, too.

Psychologists were interested in what led cadets to drop out during their West Point initiation, so they ran a study that spanned 9 different classes.

Now to even get into West Point, you have to go through a long and demanding approval process that can take a couple of years …

Including being nominated by a member of the U.S. Congress!

Before classes start, the new cadets are put through “Beast Barracks” initiation.

It’s tough — and it’s designed to push them to their limit, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

And even though they’d already been through an intense process that tested their commitment to getting in …

… about 3% of cadets usually end up QUITTING during Beast Barracks.

Scientists developed a “grit scale” that measured this trait in the cadets.  (The psychologist who came up with the scale has an online “grit” quiz here: https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale)

They found that those who were just one standard deviation higher on the grit scale were 60% more likely to finish the Beast Barracks than their peers.

But it turns out, “grit” isn’t only important for cadets:  Grit (not IQ) plays a big role in both National Spelling Bee competitors and Ivy League students with high GPAs.

They put in the work to make their goals come to life.

“Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson

The best part?

You have control over your perseverance.

Let’s get after it,

REFERENCES:

www.dropbox.com/s/0y545gn2withb5e/DuckworthPetersonMatthewsKelly_2007_PerseveranceandPassion.pdf

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19205937

jamesclear.com/mental-toughness