Did I contemplate the values of grit many years ago and not know it? Angela Duckworth has drawn such a clean picture of this trait we now call grit, and how it impacts success. She says that grit has a lot to do with the tendency to sustain interest in long term goals in the face of long odds.
Late in my book, The Falconer, my protagonist finally understands that…
To truly consider yourself a warrior, you must set your personal bar very high. If the challenges are not great enough, you either must raise the bar or cease considering yourself a true warrior.
At some point, you are going to fail in your fundamental goals, your belief system, your moral foundation, your self-view. It is an inevitable result of setting the bar higher and higher.
Redemption comes from trying, despite the sure knowledge that you will fail.
Is that grit? (Don’t get lost in the warrior reference; in this thinking a great warrior is just a person with much grit!) I think so, but will meditate on it.
Substitute “learner” for “warrior,” and YES YES YES!
Of course this is a valid substitution!