Grit In The Right Situations
In the chapter titled "The Trouble with Too Much Grit" from the book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein talks about a concept known as "match quality".
Match quality is how good of a fit you are for the work that you're doing—how interested in it you are, how skilled in it you are, how quickly you can learn at it, and so on. If you really hate the solitude that comes with extended periods of researching and writing, for example, then maybe being a professional writer (or researcher) isn't the best career path for you.
The trouble with applying grit in the wrong situations is that it's often the right choice to quit and switch to something that is a better fit for you. Quitting, in this case, can be seen not as a personal failure, but rather as a strategic choice to invest your energy in something else that will give you a higher rate of return.
If you're potentially able to get 100x the results from option B than option A (because of your interests, talents, etc.), and you're currently doing A, then maybe it's time to quit and switch to B.
Of course this is very different from quitting on a bad day, or quitting just because something is difficult. Those could rightly be seen as unstrategic quitting.
But a thoughtful choice to pivot to something that is a better fit can be one of the smartest decisions you make.
Let's quickly apply this to animal advocacy. There are thousands of ways to help animals, and you probably shouldn't stay with the very first type of advocacy that you stumble across, because there's likely something else that is a much better fit for you. It's worth spending some time exploring other options.
And rather than relentlessly committing yourself to a course of action that (a) you dislike, (b) you don't think is effective, or (c) both, it's much better to spend some time searching and experimenting for something that is a better match for you.
And then, yes—once you find something that is a good match, maybe it's time to get gritty.
