Examining Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic Win Through the Lens of Grit
Neeraj Chopra Exhibits Awe-Inspiring Grit
Given the nation’s recent jubilation at Neeraj Chopra’s phenomenal javelin throw, I thought it might be interesting to resurrect the much-cited study on Grit by Angela Duckworth. To re-examine one of the distinct qualities that enabled the 23-year-old Chopra to hurl the 800 gm javelin across a distance of 87.58 m at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Just a decade ago, Chopra, at the age of 13, was considered an “obese” kid whose family urged to him to take to running in order to shed weight. When an uncle escorted him to a local stadium to prod his physical workouts, Chopra wasn’t drawn to running at all; instead, he found himself falling “in love” with javelin throws. So much so, he was willing to withstand anything – the constrained financial circumstances of his 17-member farmer family, and a painful elbow surgery later on – to keep flinging his metallic spear across implausible distances.
Is Chopra’s feat impossible to replicate or mimic in other realms? And not just in javelin throws, but in other sports – track and field, swimming, hockey, badminton, golf, wrestling to name only a few. And why just sports? How is excellence achieved in any sphere – dancing, painting, science or business?
More broadly, are there any parenting or teaching strategies that can help children flourish? Not only to pass a particular exam or win a sports competition, but to foster the kind of persistence that is required to bounce back from life’s slumps? To keep shooting towards personally-defined heights?
Duckworth Gets Interested in Grit
Duckworth, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of The Character Lab, a non-profit enterprise, has dedicated her life to studying those questions. To uncover research-backed methods for parents, teachers and all others involved in grooming the next generation.
Unsurprisingly, Duckworth experienced the kind of upbringing that wasn’t marked by the wisdom she advocates. She was raised by a father who bemoaned the fact that none of his kids were geniuses. Not Duckworth, not her brother or sister. So, as an adult, when she was awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant, she almost felt like her own research had been vindicated. Being smart was less important than being gritty. And grittiness wasn’t a fixed trait, something magical that a privileged few were genetically inscribed with. As Duckworth emphasizes, anyone can learn to improve their own grit.
Her interest in such research was fueled by a personal experience. At the age of 27, just when she seemed headed towards a successful consulting career, she quit McKinsey. And moved from her plush, airconditioned office surroundings to a down-and-out neighborhood, where as a Math teacher, she attempted to impart the principles of algebra and geometry to seventh graders.
Predictably, some kids were “naturals” at Math. They grasped the concepts quickly and easily. But Duckworth was surprised that exam results did not seem to reflect such talent differentials. Many of the high-aptitude students had slipped before their end-of-semester tests, whereas many stragglers, by dint of their hard work and persistence, outshone them.
A few more similar experiences in her teaching career drove Duckworth to pursue research in psychology. She wanted to re-examine the ancient hare vs. tortoise-type riddle: does talent outdo diligence or vice versa? Can the slowpokes catch up with or even overtake the fleet-footed?
Grit as a Predictor of Staying Power
Duckworth’s curiosity drew her into the West Point Academy, an intense setting that boasts of one of the most competitive admission processes in the U.S. Besides stellar grades, most aspirants have to pass grueling physical exams. In other words, entrants need to be both nerds and jocks, without slipping up on either dimension. Yet, despite the fact that most candidates spend nearly two intense years trying to make it into the Academy, at least 20% drop out before graduation. And a majority of the dropouts quit after the “first summer,” after a demanding seven-week program known as the Beast.
Strangely enough, when the dropouts are analyzed, the group comprises of candidates with varying degrees of potential, including some who had been ranked as high potential in an already elite cohort. Clearly talent, innate abilities and even high school grades are not accurate predictors of students’ capacities to withstand pressure. As a West Point faculty member pointed out to Duckworth, what seems to matter most is an unwillingness to give up.
Duckworth probed leaders across a spectrum of fields: arts, journalism, business, law, athletics and academics. Her research aimed to establish the characteristics of the top performers. In essence, what distinguished the extraordinary – the Neeraj Chopras among javelin throwers – from the also-rans or the middling.
The one capacity that seemed to spring up in all her interviews was to “keep going after failure.” In other words, the highly accomplished were paragons of perseverance. Of course such dogged pursuit despite setbacks had to be directed towards a particular purpose or goal: “They not only had determination, they had direction.”
Duckworth then devised a Grit Scale to measure a person’s grit. The psychological test turned out to be a much better predictor of who left and who stayed at West Point.
She tested her Scale in other domains, including among salespersons of a time-share company. Beyond other attributes, sales requires the ability to withstand repeat rejections. What some would term a thick emotional hide. Again, applying the Grit Scale seemed to better predict which salesperson would stick to the tough (and often hurtful) job and which ones would quit. As Duckworth puts it: “Moreover, no other commonly measured personality trait – including extroversion, emotional stability, and conscientiousness – was as effective as grit in predicting job retention.”
Applying this test to other groups like spelling bee contestants or Ivy League undergraduates, Duckworth found again that grit trumped talent, in predicting the candidates who would emerge to the top of the heap.
Historic Studies of Success
Studying the factors that lead to high success has been of historic interest. Francis Galton, who was Charles Darwin’s cousin was equally intrigued by this question. Darwin himself refuted the idea that talent or innate intelligence had much do with his own remarkable findings. He said that his capacity to work diligently and for long hours with his observations of the natural world were bigger contributors to his eventual discovery, than any other inborn trait. William James, the Harvard psychologist also posited that most human beings fall short of their “natural” potential since they do not push themselves enough. In other words, they limit their own achievements since they stop striving at particular tasks.
Dan Chambliss, a sociologist, conducted a study among Olympic swimmers. He found that being born with that elusive ‘something’ was only one among many factors that led to their overall excellence. Parental investment of time and money had a role to play. So did access to pools and coaches. Chambliss concluded that while most of us cannot dream of turning into a Michael Phelps or Mark Spitz, we might be surprised by how far we can travel if we put in a similar level of effort. “Greatness is many, many individual feats, and each of them is doable.” To emphasize his point, the title of his study was “The Mundanity of Excellence.”
As he suggests, “a high level of performance is, in fact, an accretion of mundane acts.” Nietzsche had ruminated on the human proclivity to believe in genius rather than effort. The philosopher felt that when we see someone perform an astonishing feat, we would rather believe that they were born with special traits that paved the way for their success. If not, we would feel compelled to question our own inadequacies and lack of striving.
Key Drivers of Grit
One of the elements essential to grit is that you must settle into a domain, even after pivoting a few times. Otherwise, you are unlikely to achieve high levels of mastery.
Duckworth’s point is: “How often do people start down a path and then give up on it entirely?” This is one of the secrets of grit. It’s not about showing the early, spiky excitement that most of us are capable of demonstrating in any new venture or interest. It’s about the capacity to stay the course.
Passion does not always have to be measured by how intensely you like something. But rather by how consistently you are willing to show up the next day and the next and the next, despite obstacles and setbacks. To take a contemporary example, a recent study of podcasters found that at least half the podcasters don’t make it past fourteen episodes. Since podcasting needs to build a loyal following over the long term, the ones who stick it out through the waxing and waning of listener numbers are more likely to emerge among the winners.
In general, Duckworth found that older people seemed to be much grittier than younger folks. This could partially be explained by generational differences – like younger generations have more opportunities, so they’re unlikely to stick with one field. Or that as people mature, they discover their real calling or passion, so they persist despite setbacks.
Some of the psychological attributes that feed into grit include interest (how much you like what you do), practice (intentionally striving to improve your skill), purpose (the impact your work has on others) and hope (the optimism to persist despite setbacks and against impossible odds).
Why Passion Matters
Achieving excellence, in most fields, is more akin to running a marathon than dashing through a 100 meter sprint. If you’re not deeply motivated by your work, you are unlikely to persist through reversals.
John Irving, the author of The World According to Garp and many other iconic books, said that reading and writing never came to him easily. In fact, he was awarded a C- in his high-school English course and scored only 475 on 800 on his verbal SAT exam. In his book, his character Garp “could make things up one right after the other and they seemed to fit.” Irving himself was not like that at all. Much later in life, he discovered he had dyslexia, a realization that dawned on him only after his son was diagnosed with the condition. But Irving was unafraid to declare that he was indeed a “slow” writer – someone who needed to struggle through several drafts before creating a work that could touch millions of readers.
Chopra too speaks of his “love” for javelin – with an intensity of emotion that might be associated with a romantic relationship. Fortunately for him, it was the kind of love that lit up more than a billion hearts.
References
Duckworth, Angela, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Vermilion (Penguin Random House UK), 2016.