Mental Toughness #2

Based off of Angela Duckworth's studies of success, there are two key factors to succeeding: passion and perseverance, which she refers to as grit ("The Keys to Success?"). To me, passion and perseverance are very important in one's drive to want to succeed. Having these two components, someone could achieve anything they set their mind to. Your question for us students, however, is how do you think passion and perseverance will help you in college? Well, first I will deal with passion. In college you have the ability to choose your major, and the classes you will take all four years. Being in this control, students should be able to pick something they really love doing- whether that is in the arts, sciences, social sciences, mathematics, or communications departments. If students choose something they really have a passion in, that will drive them to a higher success rate. Now, I am going to focus in on perseverance. Perseverance cannot be taught. It cannot be a lesson in the classroom. It is learned over trial periods of experimenting and failing. Grasping the idea, that failure is inevitable most of the time and you have to try and try again until you accomplish your goal. Both passion and perseverance are clearly evident in a college setting. On a more personal basis, there are ways that passion and perseverance will help me succeed in college. First off, I chose a major that I am extremely interested in. Athletic training is what I want to do in life, and I know right off that I will need a college degree to become an athletic trainer. This will force me to pass all my classes and do all my homework, because without certain pre-requisites I know that I will not fulfill my dream of becoming an athletic trainer. Next, perseverance. Perseverance is an everyday battle. Specific to my major, I have had many attempts at the perfect ankle taping without success. However, I kept trying until I got it right. Staying focused on my passion and remaining persevered in my actions, I will be successful in college.

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Works Cited

Duckworth, Angela. The key to success? Grit. TED. TED conferences LLC, May 2013. Web. 3 Sept. 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit.html>.