( 郭宁Judy头马CC3演讲稿)
Do you think Harvard is the university in this world that is the hardest to enter?
Let me tell you there is another school that is much harder and more rigorous in terms of admissions process: First, you will have to start your application in the eleventh grade, and you will need to be nominated or recommended by a member of Congress, a senator or even the vice president of the United States. Top scores on SAT or ACT cannot guarantee your admission.
You will also have to have outstanding marks in fitness assessment. Which school, you may wonder, is it? Yeah, the West Point Military Academy it is!
Here is the number that may surprise you: Every year, out of 14000 applicants, 1200 are selected and admitted. But in the very first 2 months, majority of them dropped out, and only 240 students can make it through a seven-week training program, so called Beast.
For many years, researchers and psychologists long wondered why some people succeed and others fail? After many years of research on kids and adults not only from West Point, but also from all kinds of super challenging settings, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success or greatness: it wasn't social intelligence, it was not good looks, it was not physical health and it wasn't even IQ. A motivational and psychological aspect stood out: it was Grit: Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals.
Grit is to stick with your future, your dream, 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 dream reality. Grit is to live a life like it were a marathon, not a sprint.
We tend to think those successful people or great men were born with talent. We call them genius. Contrary to many people’s thought, statistics showed that there are many talented individuals who simply do not follow through on their commitments. Even more astonishing, grit is unrelated or even inversely correlated to measures of talents. Most of the time, talent is distracting. Think of Mozart, a commonly viewed genius, who started composing since 5 years old.
But what common people failed to know is that his early “works” were mostly done with his father’s help. Not until 21 years old, did he become an independent composer. Until that moment, he kept practicing the piano and composing for over 10000 hours. Greatness achievers are not born naturally. It is always efforts that count. If talent counts once, efforts count twice!
Can you grow grit to be more successful? Research shows that if you believe that the ability of learning is not fixed, especially when you read and learn about the brain and how it changes and grows in response to challenges or difficulties, it is more likely that you will become gritty. Because when you fail, you don't believe that failure is permanent condition. This is called growth mindset. And it is foundation to build Grit.
To be more specifically, grit can be built by 4 means:
First, find your true love of interest. Passion starts with simply saying to yourself: I love what I do! Next, practice, practice, and practice. You must devote yourself to the sort of focused, full-hearted practice that leads to mastery.
Third is purpose. For most people, interest without a purpose is nearly impossible to sustain for a lifetime. It should be related to not only your own interest, but to the well-being of others.
And finally, hope. If you have ever seen a movie called Shaw Shank Redemption, you would really get to know what hope is all about. If you have never seen the movie, see it right after the meeting!
You may know it or not, actors and actresses have to work really hard on their appearance coz they are in show business. I am big fan of Will Smith. I am amazed to find out he is Grammy Award-winning musician on top of Oscar-nominated actor and director.
He was once interviewed, and I’d love to share what he said to you guys as my final words:
The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I am not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, and you might be sexier than me. You might be all of those things. You got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there are two things: you are getting off first or I am going to die. It’s really that simple.
