So, on my grit evaluation I scored a 42 out of 50, and on the big five evaluation my highest
scoring traits were openness and agreeableness. I fully agree with both evaluations. Knowing
your grit level and personality traits are important, because it can encourage you to improve
where you find yourself falling behind in certain categories. For example, I started this
educational journey off gung hoe and ready to dive right in! After a while though I began to let
my confidence override my drive to get an early start on my weekly work and I began to put
the work off until the last minute. This has caused me to experience cramming to achieve all
necessary weekly goals and has added to my stress immensely. While in my initial terms my
classes were not so tough and this adopted bad habit was not overly noticeable; that changed
drastically at the beginning of this, my third, term. I have come to the realization that I must
reevaluate my time management skills and decrease my procrastinating tendencies before they
do long-term damage to my self-esteem, quality of work, or my grades. c
I definitely have to say I agree with Rita about emotional connections being powerful
motivators. The personal connections we make assist in molding who we are, whether those
connections are positive or negative. Even if you tell yourself that you don't allow others'
opinions to fuel you, I believe to some extent we all do, in reality. And who is to say that a
negative emotional connection cannot have a positive outcome? For example, the lack of
closeness with my parents, and the way they have always looked at me as a failure, and never
motivated me to be better had a negative effect on me for a long time, but since I have grown
up, I am now using those experiences, those connections, and hurt feelings, as a motivator to
get this bachelor's degree in psychology not only because it is something I am super passionate
about but to prove not only to my parents and others but also to myself how wrong they were. c
My champion is myself, hands down. Let me tell you why that is. I have spent the last few
years overcoming drug addiction to opioids (pain pills). I shifted my focus to working on the
improvement of myself mentally and physically, my self-motivation, my independence, and
achievement of the dreams I've always had for myself. I have lost a lot over the years, and
instead of coping I chose to numb the pain in a very self-destructive manner, this choice
caused me to lose even more rather than find the peace I was seeking. Not too many people
have the strength to pull themselves out of a situation such as I had allowed myself to be in,
and I will ALWAYS be proud of what I have accomplished and what bad behavior I have left
behind for good! It has shown me what kind of strength I truly carry, despite what the world
may think of me for my past. I have come to realize that our pasts do NOT always determine
our future!
Grit and personality have a deep relationship to self-care. You must recognize yourself and
love yourself before you can truly build meaningful relationships with others. Holding a false
bravado or an imagined perception of yourself just to "fit-in" or be liked, I know from personal
experience, will only lead to heartache. Despite what you see yourself as, if you are behaving
in a manner that is not your true self, that will be noticed by others, and usually has negative
results. Basically, you are lying to the world around you and most people do not appreciate a
lie. Self-acceptance and the nurturement of who you are will create an aura of honesty about
you, and in turn will draw to you those likeminded or appreciative of who you are and who
you can build meaningful and lasting relationships with.
I scored a 39/50 on the grit scale and agreeableness was my dominant trait at 45/50. I was a
little surprised with my grit score, I thought it would be a little higher. I have many long-term
goals and I work towards them every day until the goal is reached. I completely agree with the
agreeableness. No is the hardest work for me to say. If I am asked to do something I have been
known to rearrange my schedule to help out, especially in my volunteer work.
Knowing this about myself, or at least seeing what I already knew to be true presented in a
different way, will hopefully allow me to learn to say no and maybe reduce some stress by not
be overwhelmed. This could be true for anyone. Knowing your grit level and dominant
personality trait can allow you to set reasonable goals and know your limits.
Emotional connections can affect long term goals. If it is something your passionate about. it
helps keep you motivated and makes it easier to overcome obstacles. If you have a goal that
you do not feel connected too, you could find it easier to turn away or modify said goal when
it becomes hard to achieve.
My champion is my wife. She is the one who cheers my accomplishments. She is there to
listen when I feel I have come up short. She is also the one who tells me that failure is an
option and to get my butt back to work. Knowing I have someone supporting me in good and
bad makes it easier to maintain my journey toward the many goals I have.
Knowing your personality trait ties in with self-care. As I mentioned earlier, I have an issue
with telling someone that I cannot help. This has brought unnecessary stress at times as I find
myself trying to do too much at one time. Seeing this confirmed in the assessment is the wake-
up call that I need to evaluate which of the many projects I am a part I really want to continue,
and which I should step back from.
Based on the grit scale and the Big Five Personality Test, what is your grit level and most
dominant personality traits? Do you agree with your results?
For my grit score, I received a score of 48 out of 50. According to the assessment, this means I
see myself grittier than about 95 percent of American adults see themselves. When it comes to
the Big Five Personality Test, the dominant personality trait was extraversion. Extraversion
means outgoing, talkative, and sociable. I 100% agree with these results. The results of the
grit are influenced by the motivation that I have especially for my career. The motivation and
powerful motivators that the grit showed can give me success in my goals, social intelligence,
occupational and educational contexts. Angela Duckworth, I think describes grit the best. c She
states “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit
is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but
for years, and working hard to make that future a reality” (Duckworth, 2013). I could not
agree with this more than anything, this describes me and my career to the tea. c
What is the value of knowing your grit level and personality traits?
The value of knowing your grit level and personality traits is extremely important. We need to
understand more about ourselves. It's not all about being the most popular, the most
intelligent, or the person with the most talent. It will give us the motivation to have success
and goals of achievement. If everyone just put a little extra time or effort into themselves our
potential will shine and the best skill, we have will lead us to success.
Do you agree with Rita Pierson’s position that emotional connections (positive or negative)
are critical motivators for achieving long-term goals? Explain why or why not.
I agree with Rita Pierson’s position that emotional connections are critical motivators. c This is
because we are influenced by our experiences and situations that we have. Many of our
connections are something that we will remember and often relate to. Our experience will
either be positive or negative. c How we deal with these experiences will help with future long-
term goals. The experiences do not have to be career or socially connected. The experience
can be trying to swim for the first time or trying to ride a bike. The emotional connection we
learn is that a first it will be hard, scary, or even impossible to achieve. Still, with guidance and
teachings from any type of motivator (teacher, friend, family, etc.) these two experiences can
be achieved in long term goals.
Who is your champion? (Note: This can be yourself.) How does your champion contribute to
your grit or motivation?
I am going to have to say it myself. Yes, I am calling myself my champion. I have gone
through a lot of challenges and “experiences” in the last 10 or so years. c It has made me a better
person, a better boss, and most importantly a better husband and father. I was able to get
promoted in my career and as you can see an opportunity to go back to school. I am working
on my Doctrine in Public Health. My kids are seeing what I am doing and all the great
accomplishments that I have received has made them work harder in school and their
extracurricular activities. All four of my children are on the honour roll and my oldest was
made Captain for her sport as a Junior. I ask them “why are you working so hard?” They tell
me because of your daddy, you show us what hard work gets us. I do not care about the life
safety awards I have received or the accomplishments I have done, but I do care is how my
kids are raised and how I am setting them up for a bright future. I will always go above and
beyond because that is who I am. So, absolutely you can say it is because of my grit and
motivation.
How do the concepts of grit and personality apply to any of the following programmatic
course themes:
Self-Care – Knowing what your limits are and understanding if you don’t take care of yourself
your ability to have success lessons.
Social Justice - Knowing what is around you and how your traits can affect someone else’s
social outcomes.
Emotional Intelligence – Understand your stress level and how to lower it. Dealing with any
situation that is given to you whether it is good or bad and growing to reach any future goals.
Career Connections – The need to be understanding with others in your career. Someone
else’s ideas can be a great opportunity for everyone.
Ethics - Staying true to my beliefs and values. Understand that there are different beliefs and
values around us. c To learn what they are and how to incorporate them correctly in our themes.
What a fun set of assessments this week! I scored 39 out of 50 on the grit scale, which seems
fair. Although my Big Five Personality Test results made sense to me, having it all compiled
and assessed shed an overall light on myself and allowed me to see how my patterns and
feelings translate into my personality was amazing. I scored highest in Agreeableness (45 of
50) and Openness (43 of 50). This did not particularly surprise me, as I prefer to make others
feel more comfortable with me in attempts for me to feel more comfortable with them. I am a
people pleaser to an extent, which causes me to sometimes to need my downtime to recharge.
Knowing and understanding our grit level and personality traits is so valuable in the sense that
it enhances our self-awareness as well as social awareness. Our self-awareness benefits from
knowing these scores because not only do we, once again, are better able to identify our
weaknesses, but we are also able to learn where we have room for growth (great for the
"growth-mindset"). Social awareness can also benefit because we can understand how we
interact with others and can learn how to look for other people is telling traits to better
understand, communicate, and connect with them on a higher level.
I do personally agree with Rita Pierson's view about emotional connections being motivators
regardless of those connections being positive or negative in terms of achieving long-term
goals. This is an example of nurture and how our environment impacts us and our goals.
However, I do think negative emotional connections may be less likely to motivate those who
consider themselves to not have much grit or perhaps don't share many social skills as they
might act as setbacks or add to learned helplessness.
Personally, my champion is my older brother. Where most may have grown up with some sort
of sibling rivalry, I grew up with a best friend and best motivator. I can truly and gladly admit
that he is responsible for at least half of the grit I have today. I feel it may be easy at times to
blame the "hand we've been given", but my brother was given a similar hand (if not a bit
worse) and he has always persevered and rose far above any challenge given to him. He carries
his positive traits in everything he does whether it be school, his career, or his family and
seems to give 100% in each aspect of his life. Watching him my whole life has given me a
never-ending sense of optimism, hope, and drive to always do my best and keep my loved
ones close no matter what I've been dealt. To me, that's what grit is ALL about.
The concepts of grit and personality apply to many of our programmatic themes such as self-
care and ethics by discussing who we are, how we persevere, and how we can use it to interact
with those around us. I found the bulleted list on the 5.4 Self-Determination Theory page of
our textbook to be extremely helpful in highlighting this in respect to our goals (which I am
using as the result of both our grit and personalities).
Self-care: When we feel capable, connected, and in control of our lives, we experience greater
well-being. We’re more likely to achieve our goals and to do so in emotionally intelligent
ways. (Myers & DeWall, 2020) Understanding our grit score and personality traits, we can
claim more of that control over ourselves and how we live.
Ethics: Myers and Dewall also share, "Ask yourself how your goals align with your values.
Explore how achieving your goals will help other people. If you believe your goals have a
greater purpose, you are more likely to persist through challenging times. Seek support from
people who can help you develop your skills, who will hold you accountable, and who will
help you feel proud of your achievements." (2020). Ethics are enhanced by studying this
concept because we can use our new knowledge of ourselves to conduct ourselves in ethically
appropriate ways, even if it may not be our strong suit initially. It is the idea of personality and
mindset growth combined with the grit to want to do and be better that is important.
Based off the grit scale, my grit level is 34 out of 50. People in this range see themselves as
grittier than about 40 percent of American adults see themselves. My highest I scored pretty
high in all personality traits bedsides emotional stability. My top 2 are conscientiousness and
agreeableness. I do agree with my results and was surprised at how accurate I felt them to be. I
feel like I have pretty decent self-awareness and the scores definitely match what I think I
know about myself.
The value of knowing your grit level is that it helps you be realistic with your goals and what
exactly you are capable of in terms of what you should and or should not take on. The value in
knowing your personality traits as these traits affect our motivation and the type of goals, we
set for ourselves.
I do agree with Rita Pierson’s position regarding emotional connections as critical motivators
for achieving long-term goals. I think emotional connections affect us in numerous ways. And
when we have positive emotional connections is can drive us to want to make better choices or
even specific long-term goals. For example, take a married couple. This couple is happily
married, and the emotional connection is positive. The man may have a goal of owning a
house with this woman in 5 years. This is his goal because he loves his wife, wants to live with
her, wants her to have nice things, be secure and probably start or grow a family. That most
likely would not be a goal of his without that specific positive emotional connection.
My champion is my husband. He contributes to my grit and motivation by helping me be
positive but also quite literally is my reason for wanting to do most things and succeed at these
things.
Grit and personality apply to a lot of the course themes, but especially emotional intelligence
and career connections. Being aware of our grittiness and personality traits helps us be more
self-aware and hopefully help us be able to self-regulate better as well. Career wise, it is
obvious, most career paths for most people involve goals that are often hefty and or lengthy.
Your grit is what will help you with your career goals and make them a reality.
Based on the grit scale and the Big Five Personality Test, what is your grit level and most
dominant personality traits? Do you agree with your results? I scored at 41 out of 50 on my grit
scale and it stated that I was gritter than 70 percent of most Americans. I scored 43 out of 50 on
Agreeableness and Emotional Stability. I am not sure if I totally agree with the grit test but I
answered how I truly felt so I will go with it. Regarding the personality traits, I totally agree. I
am definingly positive, considerate, and willing to help anyone I come across in addition the
all the other traits.
What is the value of knowing your grit level and personality traits? I think the value of
knowing your grit level and personality traits are extremely important, I think if you are true to
yourself then you should not be surprised with the outcome.
Do you agree with Rita Pierson's position that emotional connections (positive or negative) are
critical motivators for achieving long-term goals? Explain why or why not. I do agree with
Rita's position when it comes to emotional connections. I think as we go through life and
certain situations we will come across all types of connections. I think based off those
connections we can form certain opinions based off the experiences. Those experiences can
either form a positive or negative outcome and if we meet other connections, we will
remember those interactions.
Who is your champion? (Note: This can be yourself.) How does your champion contribute to
your grit or motivation? I think my champion would be my Big Momma Bessie. She thought
me to never give up and always be a leader for your family. She taught me to be respectful and
find the good in everyone you come across. I think based off our conversation I live those
values today.
How do the concepts of grit and personality apply to any of the following programmatic
course themes:
Self-care -making a commitment to stick to your long-term goals and can make choices that
will affect your behaviours that will lead to success.
Social justice - knowing my traits would positively affect social just because I see the good in
every outcome.
Emotional intelligence - having the ability to face any crisis with low level of stress and fewer
unintended consequences.
Career connections - be patient and passionate but organized in my career search.
Ethics - making sure I stay aligned to my values and beliefs.
Myers, D., & DeWall, C. N. (2020). Psychology (6th ed.). Soomo Learning.
https://www.webtexts.com
Duckworth, A. L. (2013, April). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance [Video file].
https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_persevera
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