True Grit – I haz it or no?

I have a problem. My attention span is only so long.

Example – I play in a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) group occasionally. After about five hours, I am done. Five hours is a long time, but depending on when we start playing, many players want to go longer! And I just can’t do it. I start to fidget, look at my phone, wiggle in my chair. I consider these things rude to do, but trying to control my behavior seems to make it worse, so I go with my flow.

I read this article on The Lefsetz Letter on Grit and took this quiz which Angela Lee Duckworth, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania has authored. Her research has concluded that it is Grit that makes people successful. They stick to their passion until the job is done.

Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”

I immediately (after waffling for a few minutes) took the quiz, and arrived at a score of 3 (from 1 to 5), which does indeed sound like me – somewhere in the middle. And then I spent the rest of the day thinking about it.

I am what Barbara Sher has coined a Scanner. (Click here to hear her talk about this concept.) I am interested in many things. When I went to college, I was a voice and violin double major because I simply could not choose between one or the other. I have so many projects started – knitting, crochet, embroidery, jewelry, scrapbooking, photography, etc.!

So, I can’t say that I stick with a project until it is finished – but, then I realized that I AM sticking with the overall topic of crafting!

Other examples – I just spent 21 weeks completing a reputation grind in World of Warcraft. Ok, it’s a game – but still… You have to commit to doing it!

So anyway – my conclusion is that being a 3 in Grit is pretty fine with me – And there are things that I CAN do to stick with projects that really hold my interest, and let other projects fill the holes of my soul that need a little magic.