{"id":39503,"date":"2024-11-14T17:50:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T01:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39503"},"modified":"2024-11-14T17:50:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T01:50:02","slug":"a-wish-on-a-star-or-a-personal-mission-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-wish-on-a-star-or-a-personal-mission-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wish on a Star or a Personal Mission Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between the two books, Grit: The POWER of PASSION and PERSEVERANCE[1]<\/a> and Mindset[2]<\/a>, it feels like I was reading several lines from my \u201cscript\u201d to new employees at our orientation meetings each month, except with different words. My role in these meetings is to welcome the newcomers, review our Mission, Core Values and Vision statements and then discuss the fluidity of our organizational chart as we prefer promoting from within when current employees have the skills for a given position. It\u2019s part cheerleader and part challenge.<\/p>\n

My organization\u2019s mission statement is: Proudly providing unparallelled services for children, adults and families living with developmental differences. <\/em>Pretty bold. Yet I tell our new recruits that this is the goal we work towards every day. And it is done by practicing our core values: Honesty, Growth, Accountability, Community Building, and \u00a0Sustainability. Our hope is that every employee from our newest hire to me keeps a growth mindset. What I like about what Angela Duckworth does in Grit, is that she names what is necessary to do take a growth mindset from a wish to visible results. In her research, Dr. Duckworth found that there are four assets that people who are gritty have. These include<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Interest, a passion that begins with curiosity and delight<\/li>\n
  2. The capacity to practice. This could be the availability of an instrument if the passion is music or access to a coach and pitch if soccer lights the fire.<\/li>\n
  3. The work matters. There is intrinsic value to it.<\/li>\n
  4. A sense that rising to the occasion kind of perseverance will make a difference. Hope permeates every stage of grit[3]<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    An important factor of Grit is the perseverance aspect of her equation. In Dr. Duckworth\u2019s language, this is the continual effort that is expended over a long period to reach a goal that is so important. Talent might help a person learn more quickly but effort is always needed. I like the equations where effort counts twice in reaping the benefit of achievement.<\/p>\n

    Talent X Effort = Skill<\/p>\n

    Skill X Effort = Achievement<\/p>\n

    Effort is needed for a raw talent to become a skill and then for the skill to reach a level of achievement[4]<\/a>. \u00a0In my opinion, one of the most important things that Duckworth discusses is the risk of TV shows such as America\u2019s Got Talent[5]<\/a>, or even the Olympics. When someone watches these shows it could be easy to miss all the work that happened for weeks, months and years every single day behind the scenes. Sometimes the show make it seem as though a person has innate talent that just appeared.<\/p>\n

    Someone might wonder if there is any real value in having grit. I found it interesting that in an editorial review, Drs. Cindy Munro and Aluko\u00a0 Hope highlighted the benefits of grit among health care professionals. Specifically, \u00a0they looked at nursing, pharmacy, and other health care profession students in relation to Angela Duckworth\u2019s book. More than simply intelligence, they found a significant correlation, between students who scored high on Duckworth\u2019s Grit assessment and those with strong clinical and academic success[6]<\/a>. The reviewers acknowledged that all aspects of grit and clinical practice were not completely examined. Yet, the studies encouraged practicing nurses to take on a theme of being unstoppable, encouraging themselves to always continue their professional development[7]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    I wonder how many of us looked for the first star on a clear night as a child to make a wish for a dream come true. Seems it never really happened. However, don\u2019t lose hope. One of the more interesting things that Duckworth mentioned was the value of a life philosophy. She described it as knowing what someone wants out of their life. It gives them direction. It is their passion[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    In my business world we call it a mission statement. For more years than I can remember, my personal mission statement has been: To live my life loving and following Jesus and sharing God\u2019s love with others through service. \u00a0This could also be what Angela Duckworth calls my life philosophy. What I want most in life. What is my passion. What motivates me each day. Yes, I want to have a great marriage, a good job, healthy family, and meaning in my life. Yet, all of these come under the overarching desire to be a follower of Jesus who shares God\u2019s love, in my marriage, family, work, leisure and more. While I am far from perfect in any of these, it drives me to set aside time, \u00a0continually choose my actions and words to meet that purpose. Even when our passion is about the ultimate being, our God, it too requires attention, work and dedication to nurture the relationship.<\/p>\n

    As I reflect on this book, I see it as an approachable read that I might find in a psychology or self-help section of a bookstore with valuable and, yes, doable recommendations to turn interest into passion through repeated, consistent attention with perseverance working to make it more than a dream.<\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Angela Duckworth, Grit: THE POWER of PASSION and PERSEVERANCE (New York, Scribner, 2016)<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Carol Dweck, Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential (New York, Random House Publishing, 2006).<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Duckworth, 91-92.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Duckworth, 42.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Duckworth, 31.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Cindy L. Munro, PhD, RN, ANP, Aluko A. Hope, MD, MSCE, \u201cGrit Makes Us Unstoppable\u201d (September 1. 2019) 2. American Journal of Critical Care. \u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4037\/ajcc2019871<\/a>, accessed 11.13.2024.<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Munro and Hope, 3.<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Duckworth, 61.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Between the two books, Grit: The POWER of PASSION and PERSEVERANCE[1] and Mindset[2], it feels like I was reading several lines from my \u201cscript\u201d to new employees at our orientation meetings each month, except with different words. My role in these meetings is to welcome the newcomers, review our Mission, Core Values and Vision statements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3324,2967],"class_list":["post-39503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-duckworth","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39504,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39503\/revisions\/39504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}