Grit and Talent

Many years ago, long before the concept of grit had been developed by Angela Duckworth,[i] I was training for a marathon with my friend and colleague, Dr. Bruce Harger. At the time, I was on the psychology faculty at Drury University and Bruce — an exercise physiologist — was Drury’s athletic director and chair of the exercise science program. We had both served as Air Force officers and shared a keen interest in health and wellness. This was before smartphones, so our long training runs provided us the opportunity to talk about a variety of interesting topics without interruption.

Our conversations often turned to human performance. I would solicit Bruce’s thoughts on the physiology of running, and in turn, he would query me on the psychology of peak performance.

I remember one long training run in particular. It was a frigid February day when we set out on a 20-mile run and soon the light mist that was falling began to freeze to our stocking caps. Early in the run, Bruce began describing the physiology of energy, beginning with the Krebs Cycle. If you heard his monologue in a classroom lecture, you might have found it dry and uninteresting. But hearing it while engaged in strenuous and lengthy aerobic activity made it personally relevant and captivating. It certainly helped pass the time during a long training run.

One thing from this discussion stuck with me: Bruce pointed out that one gram of fat in the human body stores 9 calories of energy. With a grin on his face, he asked me to calculate the number of grams of fat stored in my body.

Failing to have brought a calculator on the run, the math involved in doing this — while simple — used up a couple of miles of the workout. First, I had to convert my weight from pounds to kilograms. The next step was to estimate the number of kilograms of fat in my body. I weighed about 100 kilograms and about 12 percent of that was in the form of fat, or about 12 kilograms. Then I multiplied that number by 1000 to get the number of grams of fat in my body.

Once I completed this, Bruce told me to multiply the number of fat grams by nine, yielding the number of calories I had stored in my body in fat. Grinning even wider, Bruce then directed me to divide the number of calories I expend per mile running into the total calories stored in my fat reserve. In my case, the math showed that I had enough stored energy to run approximately 700 miles, just on my fat reserves. Guess I really did not need that post-run pizza, after all.

Of course, nobody can run 700 miles without refueling. Somewhere around mile 18 of the run, Bruce pointed out that for fat to be metabolized into energy, carbohydrates are required. He used the oft-cited phrase, “fat burns in a carbohydrate flame.” This is the rationale behind carbo-loading prior to an endurance event such as a marathon or stage leg of the Tour de France and, if the event is lengthy enough, consuming carbohydrates while exercising. So, loading up on pasta and other carbohydrates prior to and during a prolonged bout of aerobic exercise may help you sustain performance, up to a point. And restoring carbohydrates after exercise is a good idea, too. Ok, I will take extra cheese on that pizza!

Source: Alan Levine, used with creative commons permission (CC BY 2.0).

While being interviewed by a reporter on grit recently, it occurred to me that grit is, in some ways, the “carbohydrate” that allows the flame of talent to burn. Duckworth defines grit as the passionate pursuit of long-term goals.[ii] To achieve a difficult goal and to build your talent along the way, passion is crucial. Duckworth maintains that deliberate practice is necessary to hone talent. Deliberate practice is not easy and often not fun. You can shoot easy layups for hours at a time, but if you do not systematically and deliberately practice more challenging shots and plays, your basketball talent will not grow. Grit provides the passion to persevere and difficult training sets the stage for excellence and personal growth. In this sense, talent burns in a grit flame.

When thinking about your own personal development, it follows that neither grit nor talent, alone, are sufficient for sustained and superior performance. High achievers in life possess the self-insight needed to identify those goals for which they have the potential talent to excel and then the ability to harness their grit and determination to constantly improve.

High talent without grit, or high grit without talent, leads to mediocre achievement. I wanted desperately to be a skilled guitar player when I was young. I was gritty and took several years of guitar lessons, but practice as I might, I did not excel. I had grit but lacked sufficient talent to allow that flame to burn. Finding that juxtaposition of talent and grit, especially early in life, is a central ingredient to success.

There is another benefit that accrues when applying grit to difficult tasks. Long-distance runners and other endurance athletes experience a sense of engagement and flow when training. You lose a sense of time, feel “in the zone,” and are immersed in your activity.

Positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined this state as “flow” and research reveals it to be a central component of an engaged life, full of meaning and purpose.[iii] You do not have to be an athlete to experience flow. Musicians, writers, artists, skilled workers, and others share this experience. Grit provides the focused attention needed to experience flow.

Grit Essential Reads

Don’t Waste Your Grit When It’s Time to Quit

The Quiet Weight

The message here is clear. Grit is indeed a critical factor in achievement. But it is best applied to tasks and goals for which you have the innate talent and interest to sustain growth. Engage in honest self-appraisal and identify what you have the physical and cognitive skills to be good at, then use your grit to fan the talent flame. Love what you are good at and be good at what you love. Your talent will only take you so far; you need grit to be great. And accomplishing difficult tasks provides a foundation for a life of meaning and purpose.

I am certain that Bruce, who passed away some years ago, would appreciate this extrapolation of the Krebs Cycle to the psychology of human performance. Bruce and I completed our marathon, and we enjoyed lots of carbs along the way.

Note: The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.