In other studies of both secondary school and university students, self discipline has been a better predictor of school performance, attendance, and graduation honors than intelligence scores have been. “Discipline outdoes talent,” concluded researchers Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman (2005, 2006), and it explains why girls get higher school grades than equally capable boys. But discipline also refines talent. By their early twenties, top violinists have accumulated some 10,000 lifetime practice hours—double the practice time of other violin students aiming to be teachers (Ericsson et al., 2001, 2006, 2007). From his studies, Herbert Simon (1998), a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics, formed what has been called the 10-year rule: That world -class experts in a field typically have invested “at least 10 years of hard work—say, 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year.” A study of outstanding scholars, athletes, and artists found that all were highly motivated and self -disciplined, willing to dedicate hours every day to the pursuit of their goals (Bloom, 1985). These superstar achievers were distinguished not so much by their extraordinary natural talent as by their extraordinary daily discipline. Great achievement, it seems, mixes a teaspoon of inspiration with a gallon of perspiration. What distinguishes extremely successful individuals from their equally talented peers, note Duckworth and Seligman, is grit—passionate dedication to an ambitious, long-term goal. Although intelligence is distributed like a bell curve, achievements are not. That tells us that achievement involves much more than raw ability.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 05:03:46 +0000
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