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New Science: Too Much Grit Can Actually Damage Your Brain
Entrepreneurship, everyone will tell you, requires grit. The ability to overcome obstacles, stick with a goal, and bounce back after failure are all key for building a company. Which is why business owners are endlessly urged to develop this trait and media outlets are full of tips on growing your resilience.
All this advice isn’t wrong. (Though researchers argue over the right terminology for grit and exactly how to foster it.) But according to new research, it might be missing a key piece of the picture.
Sure, grit can help you get ahead. But a new study has found that if you lean on grit to white-knuckle through adversity too often, and don’t learn other ways to cope and care for yourself, you might end up damaging your brain.
More grit, more brain damage?
Before I explain the research, it’s important to stress that no one is saying grit is a bad thing to have. As one of the authors behind the recent study, Darlingtina Esiaka, pointed out in a recent place explaining her work on The Conversation, “studies have linked grit with success in goal attainment, improved psychological well-being and increased life satisfaction.”
But when Esiaka and her collaborators surveyed 158 Black men living in the U.S. about how much grit they…
