Hope theory is necessary but, to me it seems, insufficient to explain grit. You must have hope that you’ll succeed ultimately. It is hard to imagine someone who is hopeless persevering & self-regulating extremely well. Yes, there’s probably someone, somewhere who is so depressed that getting out of bed feels impossible, but outwardly functions like an optimist. That’s a low probability occurance, I think.

I think the psychology of interest and also of imagery play key roles. Interest selects the goals to pursue, imagery makes them real and immediate for pursuit. Habit & its cousin habituation might allow goal-seekers to select more goals and to follow those dreams with less perception of effort. Some GOOD constraints (self-discipline in action) keep the motivated on track.

What’s your grand theory of perseverance? I love these chats about grit.

In doing career coaching, I’ve found that perseverance is strongly tied to self-discipline. I.e. those people who have self-discipline tend to be more persevering. They will try harder. I think it’s no surprise that Angela studies both Grit and Self-Regulation in her research interests.

If this is the case, why could it be? Why could it be that people who are more self-disciplined about their lives and daily habits - that these people will fight harder and longer to get to their goals? Is that really the case across the board? Thanks for bringing up the questions.

I’d like to see what Dr. Angela Duckworth at UPenn has to say about grit these days. There were two articles about the subject in Psychology Today that were of interest.