The driving force

The new year makes a lot of us think of resolutions and plans for self development. We start making lists of what we want to change and get started. We fill our agendas with new things to try and gym classes get fuller. We set objectives to reach a higher sense of achievement.

In Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth draws on her own personal story to identify “Grit” as the secret to outstanding achievements. 

The first step in finding our passion is understanding ourselves better. Learning about how Psychologists define intelligence is a good way to begin with a generic introspection. Very well mind describes intelligence types we might be able to relate to. 16 personalities is one of many personality tests giving us a detailed description of who we are and why we do things in a certain way. The goal is to find out what we do well and take pleasure in doing. When we don’t know the answer, we can ask people close to us for their opinions. We often spend a lot of time getting constructive feedback from others to improve on what we don’t do well. The effect of investing the same amount of time asking them what we do well is game changing. 

The other part of the equation is perseverance. In the words of William Henry Johnson, American Painter: “It is to be, it is up to me”. I admire and stand behind  “dreaming big” and “can do” attitudes as much as I recognize the power of context. In the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the implications of variations in social groups, communities and environments as shifts that can cause a new idea to tip. It is compatible and wise seeking to understand the context we are in to maximize the outcomes of our choices. Maintaining consistency and drive once we’ve identified our personal path for individual learning and growth will enable us to achieve more.

Have you ever asked other people what they think that you are good at? What is it that drives you?