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Intrinsic Spirituality and Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long Term Goals
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Abstract
Spirituality is often viewed as religiosity with a conceptualized idea that most spirituality
involves (denomination and non-denomination) church worship as well as organized
celebrations of one’s religion. The idea that religiosity must consist of a specified practice,
with the commitment to the religion itself has brought on (to many) a desire to live a life
of divine connection with oneself and with others while creating a sense of success through
meaningful work, divine worship, and commitment. c Spirituality alone is not a vehicle to
success, and although the application of perseverance in (one’s) daily life will bring by a
sense of completion and achievement, without spirituality, it may not always bring a feeling
of self-worth. A study has been conducted to find the correlation between the application of
spirituality in one’s life and its effect on (one’s) grit: perseverance and passion for long
term goals.
Keywords: Spirituality, religiosity, commitment, grit
Results
Created to assess the relationship between Intrinsic Spirituality and Grit:
Perseverance and Passion for Long Term Goals, this survey consisted of a sample size of
21 participants with ages ranging from 18 to above 49 years of age. Participants above the
age of 49 accounted for 42.85% of participants, participants age group between 18-24 as
well as participants age group 33-40 accounted for 9.5% of survey participants, age group
25-32 accounted for 14.28% of participants and participants age group 41-48 made up
23.8% of participants (Figure 1), with a mean of 3.76 and 1.41 standard deviation (Figure
2). Data collection took place via a survey and was distributed to participants via email.
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Survey was conducted via a google form and filled out by 21 of the 50 potential survey
participants. Survey was confidential to protect the participants privacy and purpose of
study was disclosed on google form. There were no conflicts in data collection nor
conduction of research study.
1. Participant Age Group 18 – 24
2 → 9.5%
2. Participant Age Group 25 – 32
3 → 14.28%
3. Participant Age Group 33 – 40
2 → 9.5%
4. Participant Age Group 41 – 48
5 → 23.8%
5. Participant Age Group 49 – and older
9 → 42.85%
Figure 1
Descriptive Statistic: Age of Participants
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Age
21
1.00
5.00
3.7619
1.41084
Valid N (listwise)
21
Figure 2
The purpose of this study is to find the correlation between one’s level of intrinsic
spirituality and how it affects their grit: perseverance for long term goals. The null
hypothesis states that there is no relationship between the level of intrinsic spirituality and
one’s grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long Term Goals. A Pearson’s r correlation test
reveled that there was a significant relationship between intrinsic spirituality and grit:
perseverance and passion for long term goals, r(21) = .024, p=.490 (Figure 3), CI= .95
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(Figure 4) therefore we reject the null hypothesis and find that grit: perseverance and
passion for long term goals is affected by one’s intrinsic spirituality. c
Pearson’s r Correlation Test for Intrinsic Spirituality and Grit: Perseverance for Long Term Goals
Intrinsic Spirituality
Grit: Perseverance
Intrinsic Spirituality
Pearson Correlation
1
-.490*
Sig. (2-tailed)
.024
N
21
21
Grit: Perseverance
Pearson Correlation
-.490*
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.024
N
21
21
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Figure 3
Figure 4
Discussion
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Highly influenced by spirituality, one’s perseverance embeds significance and
meaning to one’s quality of life despite religious affiliations. Such feeling of meaning and
completeness allows for self-connection, self-realization and a mindset that encompasses
positivity and satisfaction (Dutta and Singh, 2017). The study conducted via survey to find
the correlation between intrinsic spirituality and grit: perseverance and passion for lifelong
goals, showed a significant relationship between the two variables. Most participants in the
study were middle aged and over the age of 49, which imposed some limitations to the
study results as these participants have more life experience and show a heightened level of
gratitude in comparison to younger adults. Another study conducted on “Gratitude across
the life Span: Age differences and Links to Subjective Wellbeing” shows levels of
optimism and interpersonal strength to be more prominent in the older years, confirming my
theory on the limitation of my own study. These characteristics include forgiveness,
positivity, and attachment security (Chopik, Newton and Jarden 2017). Other studies have
been conducted to find the relationship between chronological age and its association with
gratitude and showed similar results in the significance relationship between the two
variables. One theory suggests that because gratitude is an evolutionary mechanism, it has a
tendency of bringing individuals together, and due to aging adults having a growing
understanding that their lifetime is limited, they are more likely to be grateful, positive and
show a higher level of perseverance to achieve their lifelong goals, indicating aging adults
are more likely to emphasize priority in meaningful goals than those in their younger years.
At the infancy stage of my study on the relationship between intrinsic spirituality
and grit: perseverance for life term goals, there was a high level of interest in finding how
intrinsic spirituality affected one’s grit and perseverance. Once study was conducted and
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results showed a much higher number of older participants in my study, I found the
limitation of my study was a contributing factor to the limitation of my research and I
researched this limitation further. Further studies on finding what percentage of young
adults are motivated by spirituality and why they differ from those that do not fall in the
same age category are recommended. Finding the variable that serves as a driving factor for
younger adults in their grit: perseverance and passion for lifelong goals would be beneficial
and the application of (said variable) would complement many events that are likely to
have a higher number of younger participants. These events would include (but not be
limited to) career training programs, life coach sessions for high school graduates, military
training programs for incoming cadets, et cetera.
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References
Intrinsic Spirituality as a Context for Motivation. (2019). Journal of Organizational
Psychology, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.33423/jop.v19i5.2513
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit:
Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Dutta, U. D., & Singh, A. S. (2017). Studying Spirituality in the context of Grit and
Resilience of College-going Young Adults. Studying Spirituality in the Context of
Grit and Resilience of College-Going Young Adults, 3(9), 50–55.
Chopik, W. J., Newton, N. J., Ryan, L. H., Kashdan, T. B., & Jarden, A. J. (2017).
Gratitude across the life span: Age differences and links to subjective well-being.
The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14(3), 292–302.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2017.1414296
George, L. K. (2010). Still Happy After All These Years: Research Frontiers on Subjective
Well-being in Later Life. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological
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