Explanatory Essay Grit

Tisya Shah

Explanatory Essay

“The Key to Success? Grit”

Would you want your success to be controlled by random luck or your grit? In "The key to success? Grit”, a TED TALK, Angela Lee Duckworth talks about grit and how it’s so important to making one successful. She says "...One characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. It wasn't social intelligence, it wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ: It was grit. Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years; and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint."

Angela shows the viewers that grit is how hard someone works towards something and that they never give up. It also tells the viewers that grit is important to have and if someone uses it they will be successful. The idea of grit is so important and so meaningful and it is used by me personally, it’s used by people in art and people in the world.

First, grit can be connected to people like me personally.

One example of grit that I experienced was in gymnastics. In the 2015-2016 gymnastics season, I wanted to get a qualifying score to go to states and move up to the next level. Also, moving up to the next level and getting into states was important because I really wanted to learn more skills and become better at gymnastics. To add on, people can get qualifying scores at meets during the season. At the start of the season, my scores were low and I didn’t qualify. This motivated me to work harder in practice. As the year went on, I worked hard and used all the time I had for practicing. Specifically, my hard work and grit got me more skills like a kip on bars. To add, getting more skills gets people a higher score. Later in the season, I competed again and got three qualifying scores and got into states. I would have never made it without my grit. This example in my life really shows that grit is the key to success. In addition to grit connecting to personal experiences it connects to art as

well.

Second, grit is connected to art.

A famous musician is Stevie Wonder. To add, he is a blind musician born in 1950. From a young age, he showed in interest in music and loved listening and playing it. He also, worked to improve his music skills and songwriting with his grit and he worked hard no matter his blind disadvantage. With Stevie Wonder's grit, he got his first hit single in 1963. Moreover, some of his famous songs were “I Just Called to say I love you” and “Ebony and Ivory”. This event shows the Stevie used grit or hard work and became a musician no matter the disadvantage. Grit was put into his many songs and because of that he become famous. He would have never became famous without his grit. Also, this event shows that grit is so important to becoming successful. Grit is connected to music as well as being connected to the world around

us.

Third, grit is connected to the world. Martin Luther King Jr was a person that definitely used grit to help the world. He was born in 1929 and grew up in Georgia. As a kid he experienced racism and had a dream of stopping it. Also, he thought that the color of your skin doesn’t make you a different person. To add, he really wanted to stop racism and as he got older he protested against racism. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous “I have a dream speech”. This moved people to stop racism. Furthermore, the speech helped stop racism and it really showed his grit. Martin Luther King Jr didn’t stop believing that racism should be stopped for the good. He started to the stop racism and encouraged others like John F Kennedy to support him. Moreover, he played a key role in the American Civil Rights Movement around the 1950’s. Martin Luther King Jr changed the world and really helped the stop of racism was his grit. Grit can be connected to many things such as the world.
In conclusion, grit is so important in life so without it the world would be different. If people didn’t use grit their success would depend on random luck. Therefore, many people wouldn’t be successful and our world wouldn’t be improving. Without an improving world life would be harder. Grit is used by many people like me personally, people in art and people in the world. Grit can be connected to me personally. I used grit to make states and move up to the next level in gymnastics. Grit can also be connected to art as well. A famous blind musician, Stevie Wonder, used grit and didn’t let his disadvantage take over his dreams. Grit can also be connected to the world. Martin Luther King Jr used his grit and helped change racism and change the world for the good. Grit is so useful and very meaningful to me. Go out today and use grit because grit is the key to your success.