Linda Kaplan Thaler

Where I got the book: my local library. A Strength Training read.

Grit, say Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, is all you really need. It’s the great leveler, available to all regardless of age, income, physical ability or IQ.

I started the Strength Training readalong group for writers because I wanted to make various aspects of my life stronger, better able to support the weight of a writing career that really wants to be the boss of everything.

I chose Grit as the first topic because I show more was about to go into NaNoWriMo with a 90,000 word goal, so I needed the image of grit in my head. I did NOT need the image of the tightrope walker who starts wobbling when he’s 1,500 feet above the Grand Canyon—that pings my vertigo EVERY time I think about it.

The authors define grit as Guts, Resilience, Initiative and Tenacity—see what they did there? Apart from the aforementioned tightrope walker image, you don’t need any of those things to read this book, which is 143 small pages short and mostly made up of stories. Several of those stories are drawn from the authors’ own experiences, building up a New York advertising agency from scratch and so on, and are inevitably self-laudatory.

Enemies of grit include 1. the self-esteem movement 2. the false concept of retirement 3. the myth of talent. I kind of agree that the whole self-esteem thing is doing nobody any favors and that retirement is just dumb (I never did want to play golf) but would argue that there is such a thing as being born with a gift.

I liked some of the stories, especially the one about James Patterson, but the advertising agency ones not so much. There were some grit-building exercises at the end of each chapter, but I found them a bit too vague. Conclusion: kind of an entry-level self-help book. Not bad, but not great, which sort of destroys their premise. show less

Lots of upbeat stories and slogans. Impressive. However, after reading one study recently, I'm not entirely buying this. Or at least the part which generally claims that "age is nothing". A study of essay writing through age showed that after a certain point writer's vocabulary becomes poorer, and sentences simpler (alas, not in a snugly Zen way). So try as you may but some merciless limits do exist :(

Audio book is really fast since it's only 3 hours. I think a lot of this is very common sense. Of course, what you put out there you will get back and if you are unkind to someone you could meet them later in life and need something. They could remember that unkind experience and karma will bite you in the butt and they might not be so nice to you. So no matter what you might think, everyone deserves kindness and everyone could be a person you might need something from in the future. I work show more with a lot of volunteers and participants with our events and you have to kill them with kindness so they will volunteer again and participate again. Plus it just makes you feel better.

I've learned to not let someone else's bad mood rub off on me. If I feel I'm allowing it, I make a point of trying to change my mood and smile more. show less

OK, but kept saying same thing over and over with stories. Do small thoughtful things because they can make a differnce and you never know how much you will benifit from them. I only listened to the first CD.