Components of Grit

Let’s dig a little deeper into that word “grit.” Angela Duckworth, an accomplished researcher and psychologist whose life mission is studying grit and character education, has determined that there are four things we need to cultivate to meet the inevitable challenge of a meaningful, fulfilling life:

Interest – we must love what we do and have intrinsic motivation to improve our craft to an elite level. 

Practice – we must earn our wings every day and find a way to remain elite. Organizationally, we need to continue to create growth opportunities for our aviators (especially the accomplished performers who are tasked with training the next generation of aviators at the unit level). Individually, we need to do the work on the ground daily.

Purpose and optimism – We need to remember that we are part of a legacy of life savers. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and it is our responsibility to leave our community more capable and with wider safety margins than how we inherited it. We must maintain high standards and high support for those we are training to take our place. We must provide the right opportunities to iterate in a positive manner and remain elite. Average is not an option.