Day 103 Record Keeping SRHI = 71
Day 71 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 72
Day 17 Burpee SRHI= 52 (1x6 and another later in the day for fun)
Day 117 Eating SRHI = 59
Good sleep, good wakeup. Got depressed last night, busted past it.

Improved Grit Score

A while back I mentioned Angela Duckworth’s Grit Scale. I took the test, and was not surprised to find that I had exactly average grittiness (3.5 out of 5).

Looking back, I’m actually shocked it wasn’t lower. The questions ask whether or not you complete tasks, or get side tracked, if you switch projects month to month, and if you’ve ever finished a task that took more than a year.

I have always been that guy - the one distracted by whatever excites me most. And I get excited by a lot - the problem is that dabbling doesn’t get me anywhere. I end up having specialized knowledge on many topics, but few skills, much less mastery, of them.

And this continued to be the case until the last few years. With my job I’ve managed to get a modicum of success after years of work. It has really been one of the few things that I’ve displayed true grit in. And that’s not at all surprising given this project came about from wondering why people aren’t good at more than one or two things.

With this habit project, one I’ve been working on for about a year, I’ve faced a lot of setbacks (all my habits have imploded several times). I’ve also started to build things slowly - in 4 more day I’ll have been eating clean for 4 months - blowing away anything I’ve done in the past. I just celebrated 100 consecutive days of recording habits, also a first. This project has forced me to work on sticking with things over time rather than just in bursts.

As such I recognize a close relationship between this skill, what I’m calling Endurance, and what Duckworth calls Grit.

That being said - has this habit formation project changed my Grit? I just took the test again, and found that my Grit is now at 3.83. This might deviate with repeated taking of the test. And it is a small change from 3.5 - but long term change is what Grittiness is all about, isn’t it?

Take the test yourself HERE.