Angela Duckworth, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, won the MacArthur Scholar Award in 20 13, referred to as the "Genius Award". On 20 13, Angela duckworth gave a TED talk entitled "Persistence: Unleashing Passion and Persistence". Up to now, the number of hits has exceeded 6.5438+million.

About this book

Many people think that the key to success lies in IQ and EQ. However, Angela Duckworth, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that perseverance plays a key role in success. In this book, Angela duckworth introduced her research results to us, and gave practical methods, giving constructive answers to how to improve our perseverance index. This book shows us the other side of success, that is, finding your own interests, finding your own mission in life, constantly tempering yourself in setbacks, becoming a determined person, and thus having the life you want.

Core content

The core of this book is perseverance, perseverance, which is a very fashionable new concept at present. It consists of passion and persistence, both of which are indispensable. No one wants to dwell on things they don't like, but constantly changing goals and digging wells everywhere is not the way. A truly determined person keeps working hard in the right direction. Perseverance is more important than IQ, EQ and self-control. The matching perseverance index table can test a person's perseverance index and effectively predict whether a person can succeed in the future. At the same time, a person's perseverance index is not fixed. You can effectively improve your perseverance through four steps.

First, perseverance = passion+persistence

1. enthusiasm

We all say that interest is a mentor, but when we grow up, we stick to the job we don't like. Why can't you follow your inner passion? Why is it considered unreliable to follow passion? The reason is that we have a deep misunderstanding of passion:

(1) Passion is not decided instantly; on the contrary, it takes time to discover it slowly;

(2) Passion is not an ambition decided at an early age. On the contrary, it needs constant exploration and trial.

Stick to it

Perseverance is more like running a marathon. It doesn't matter how fast you run, what matters is how long you persist. How many nights an entrepreneur stays up to raise money does not show how determined he is. Whether you can persist for a long time and remain loyal to your goals is the standard of perseverance.

Second, perseverance is more important than IQ, EQ and self-control.

1. IQ

Early psychologists once thought that IQ was an important factor to predict a person's future success. This view is so ingrained that people still prefer IQ. However, the preference for genius provides an excellent excuse for our laziness or lack of progress: I can't succeed, not because I didn't work hard the day after tomorrow, but because I was born with shortcomings.

Step 2 control yourself

The marshmallow experiment is a classic experiment about delayed gratification paradigm. In the marshmallow experiment, there is a significant correlation between the waiting time of the child and the score he got when he took the "American College Entrance Examination" SAT when he grew up. This experiment has been carried out in many countries around the world, not only in the United States, but also with similar results. This experiment has aroused widespread concern, so that self-control has replaced intelligence and become an important factor in determining whether a person can succeed.

3. Emotional intelligence

EQ was put forward by psychologist Daniel Gorman. He believes that in modern society, compared with the logical thinking ability of the left brain advocated by IQ theory, the empathy function of the right brain is greater. People with high emotional intelligence are good at controlling their own emotions and managing others' emotions, so they can do things more easily. Therefore, the importance of EQ is accepted by more and more people.

Perseverance

Perseverance index scale was developed in West Point Military Academy, and then it was widely used in education, business and other fields. There are 10 problems in the Perseverance Index Scale, which describes 10 situations. Testers need to choose five answers from "nothing like me" to "especially like me" according to their own situation. The scale can not only measure the perseverance index of the tester, but also measure the "passion" index and "persistence" index of the tester respectively.

For example, the topic "I will not be discouraged by setbacks, and I will not give up easily" will test your score on "persistence". Do you think this sentence is "nothing like me", "not much like me" or "a little like me", or "much like me" or "especially like me"? If you feel "particularly like me", then you can get 5 points for this question. If you choose "nothing like me", then your score on this question is only 1.

Another topic is "I was briefly fascinated by an idea or project, but later I lost interest". Do you think this sentence is "nothing like me", "not much like me" or "a little like me", or "much like me" or "especially like me"? If you feel "nothing like me", then you can get 5 points for this question. If you choose "especially like me", then your score on this question is only 1.

Third, how to improve your perseverance index

1. Find your passion

How to find your passion? This requires a lot of preliminary attempts. Author Angela Duckworth believes that even in cultivating interest, people need to work hard. Most persevering models have spent many years exploring their interests, and the thing that finally occupied their hearts was not recognized when they first met.

Although successful people often say in interviews, "I can't imagine that I would choose another career." However, in fact, many people have had experiences or ideas in other industries in the early days. So, don't sit there and think about what you really like, be brave in trying, pursuing and practicing.

Deliberate practice

Perseverance lies not only in a person's time devoted to an interest, but also in the quality of investment. How do professional experts deliberately practice for 10 thousand hours? First find a small area that needs improvement, then devote yourself to seeking external feedback, and then adjust the exercises repeatedly according to the feedback until the previous deficiencies become unconscious abilities.

3. Life mission

Passion comes from interest as well as goals. The so-called goal is your mission in life, which is your intention to benefit others.

Although only a few people really take work as their mission in life, it is not because people lack desire. Everyone is pursuing the meaning of life while earning bread. Then how can we know the mission of life? The answer is that no matter what job you do, you need to constantly examine yourself and think about how to connect with others, how to connect with the wider world and how to show your deep values. In other words, a bricklayer who once said "I am laying bricks" may realize that he is creating a "house of God" at some point.

4. Have a growth mentality

There is a very famous experiment in the field of positive psychology-learned helplessness experiment. The experiment found that those puppies who have no control over electric shock and can only bear the pain passively still tend to bear the electric shock passively without any resistance when facing the opportunity to escape.

However, not all puppies are like this. Dogs with 1/3 show perseverance. Despite their previous pain, they had no choice but to give up and flee to a safe place. It is these puppies that make researchers turn their research objects into human beings who are in similar adversity but still will not give up.

What makes those who fail repeatedly still try again and again with hope? The answer is "growth mentality". Growth mentality helps you to explain adversity in an optimistic way. It makes you full of hope, constantly seeking new challenges and making yourself stronger. Growth mentality and perseverance always go hand in hand, in other words, people with growth mentality are more determined.

line

1. If you want to be a truly "determined" person, you must continue to "work hard" in the "right direction".

2. Perseverance is more like running a marathon. It doesn't matter how fast the game is and how long it takes, but how long you stick to a speed is the most important thing.

Persistence means loving what you love and continuing to love.

People who have achieved something must have enthusiasm and persistence.

Author: Lu Yi

Brain map: Moses

Report: Cheng Ya