I recently read about a study that was done on National Spelling Bee contestants. The study compared intelligence and hours spent studying words and language.

The interesting fact that was revealed by the research was that intelligence was not the major determiner of success at the national level of competitive spelling. Rather, a more reliable measure to figure out who would advance further in competition was the number of hours a week the student spent studying language and spelling.

Students who put in more hours tended to do better. To be fair, intelligence played a part as well, but willingness to invest countless hours in preparation meant far more. This is interesting, because we often assume that the most successful individuals are ones who have a natural giftedness or intelligence in their field of competition.

Though it’s important, drive to pursue excellence often means more. This is easy to miss when we watch elite athletes or read books by folks who are the leaders in their fields. This is because we don’t get to see the Olympian devote decades of their lives in preparation to compete at that level, and the books rarely outline the thousands of hours spent building the expertise necessary to be a leader in your field.

The ability to work at something continuously for years is often called “grit” and recent research is finding that success and happiness tend to be more abundant amongst folks who have a great deal of it. One study measured college students’ willingness to continue in a difficult task, specifically running uphill on a treadmill.

The study then followed the students throughout their lives and discovered that the students who were able to continue longer in difficult tasks despite the discomfort involved, were more likely to be happy and successful in life.

The idea is that folks who can work harder for longer tend to do better. There’s an adage that sums it up well: The harder I work, the more luck I have. Of course, the idea behind the quote is that luck is product of work. This is great news for most folks because natural talent is something you can’t acquire. Most people aren’t natural athletes or a geniuses. Some people have a natural inclination toward grit, but even that is something that can be developed over time.

In fact, research has found that most people’s grit improves as they age and mature. I found this to be true when I started graduate school. As a younger man, I was a poor student, largely because I was unwilling to devote the effort necessary to be a good student. As an adult, I did very well, not because I got smarter or had more time.

Rather, I did well because I learned to work harder longer without giving up. The same is true of most people. When we find things that we love or are passionate about, we can devote ourselves more effectively for longer periods of time.

There are other things we can do to improve our grit. For example, identifying goals and rededicating yourself to those goals on a daily basis or learning to cultivate hope that you can achieve your goals over the long term or surrounding yourself with people who have high levels of personal grit.

These little things make a huge difference because grit is literally just pushing yourself to accomplish despite setbacks or slow progress. Great things are accomplished in the small daily efforts.